After a great win at Hull City which has further cemented Saints top ten credentials, its time to take that next step and become a club that challenges for trophies.
It has been a good season for Saints in the league, although the promises of Champion's League qualification have not been grounded, a big step forward has been taken and the win at Hull has meant that not only are we on the cusp of our first Premier Top Ten finish sine 2003 we have a genuine opportunity to compete for silverware.
Eleven years ago saints finished 8th and reached the FA Cup Final and this should be our aim for this year, indeed we should be looking to go one better in both competitions, win the FA Cup and finish 7th in the Premier, both are stretching but achievable targets.
But it is the cup we should concentrate on, if we can overcome Sunderland we will be in the last eight and at best only 3 of the 7 clubs ahead of us can still be in the draw for the quarter finals, avoid one of those and we have a great chance of a day out at Wembley for the semi finals.
But no one remembers the losing finalists so we want to get to Wembley for the cup final and then we want to repeat 1976 and win it, this would send a big message out to the footballing world about where Southampton FC's ambitions now lie.
But it is more than that, Mauricio Pochettino has spoken that he doesnt like the Europa League, personally I cant understand this viewpoint, surely the Europa League like a top ten finish is another step towards the ultimate goal of challenging for the the big one, The Champions League.
Ok I can see his viewpoint from the point of view that it adds extra games to a season, but we should have a big enough squad to handle this, in the first instance we could use the early rounds to give those fringe players and youngsters a game and blood them into competitive football, one of our problems during our bad spell is that we didnt have enough players with any real game time stepping into those who were injured shoes, this would give us an opportunity to rectify this.
But perhaps the main benefit would be the fact this would put us on the European stage, this would enable us to sign players with a lot more ease, its a lot less difficult to persuade a player to come to the club when he sees you are competing in Europe, firstly that tells him something about where the clubs standing is in England, secondly it offers him the chance to perform on that European stage himself, perhaps in England Clubs dont view the competition as highly as those in Europe, but players do, take Wanyama for instance, did he come to the fore because of a string of games in the SPL against the likes of Aberdeen and Inverness Caledonian Thistle, no what gained his reputation was his performance against Barcelona, that was in the Champions League, but for players it is about playing in Europe ask those at Spurs or Liverpool whether they would prefer to not be in the uropa League if they fail to qualify for the Champions League.
So the Europa League should be looked on as one of those steps forward that we were told about, a smaller one than our ex CEO promised, but a step forward all the same.
The detractors of the Europa League would point to the fact that it effects form in the Premier League so much, this is myth more than fact, over the last 3 seasons there have been ten qualifyers for the Europa League group stages, one of those, Birmingham were relegated the season before they qualified here are the facts
Teams that played in group stages
09/10 —
Everton 5th to 8th (reached round of 32)
Fulham 7th to 12th (final)
10/11 —
Liverpool 7th to 6th (last 16),
Man City 5th to 3rd (last 16)
11/12 —
Tottenham 5th to 4th (group stage),
Birmingham 18th relegated from Premier season before (group stage),
Fulham 8th to 9th (group stage),
Stoke 13th to 14th (last 32)
12/13 —
Liverpool 8th to 7th (round of 32),
Newcastle 5th to 16th (quarter-finals),
Tottenham 4th to 5th (quarter-finals)
So to clarify, of the nine clubs who reached the group stage, three improved their league position from the season before, three dropped only one place, and of the other three , Everton dropped three places, Fulham dropped from 7th to 12th and only Newcastle who dropped from 5th to 16th can truly be said to have really struggled in the season that they took part in the Europa League.
So it is something of a myth that playing in the Europa League is a disaster, in most cases it hasnt altered the teams league performance that drastically.
If we get into it, its about managing the squad properly, if we do that then it should hold no fears and in fact it should offer us a lot more benefits and positives than negatives.
For any football club it should be about chasing glory, whether that glory is winning promotion from League 2, the JPT or the FA Cup, like say Fleetwood chasing promotion from League 2, every club should be looking to achieve what they are capable of, can Saints win the Premier league, certainly not in the current climate in this division, but they can win the FA Cup so this should be a priority for us and in many respects we unlike most of the other clubs left in the competition have no real diversions in the league apart from the chance of winning an extra million or two in league position.
Every year you see televised pictures of a city going mad after their team has won the FA Cup, proudly brandishing it from an open topped bus, yes football is about money nowadays, especially in the Premier League, but I have still yet to see a club parade a Cheque around the City prior to a Civic Reception with the man who scored the equaliser at Stoke to push his team up a couple of places being carried shoulder high by his team mates and the crowd singing his name.
Yes football has changed and it has definately misplaced its priorities along the way, but perhaps Saints can blaze the trail forward and show those clubs outside of the top four that their is more to life than being fodder for the likes of Chelsea, that success is more than avoiding relegation, but is about winning things.