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It's Not Doom And Gloom According To The Bookies

If you read some web sites you would think that Saints are about to embark on a dramatic plunge down the leagues as the sqaud falls apart, the bookmakers don't think so though.

Some Saints fans it has to be said are drama queens, the mere hint of a headline in the media about a player about to be sold brings out a rash of supporters claiming that the club is in meltdown.

One such comment I read on the Daily Echo website saw the poster claiming that the alleged interest in Lovren from Liverpool was conclusive proof of what had been suspected all along, that the club was being stripped of its assets ahead of a sale, what had conveniently been ignored was the fact that so far Saints have pumped £20 million back from the transfer fees received so far into buying two new players, surely not the actions of someone asset stripping.

Add to that the fact if you really want to sell football club it needs to be in the Premier League, completely asset stripping would make that difficult and the sell on value of the club would plummet dramatically.

Of course we are suffering what many clubs in our position do, that is the so called big boys being interested in our players after a good season, that sadly is a symptom of success, we have to accept that and move forward, as have been saying all summer its not about what happens its about what you do next.

A good barometer of where others see you is the bookmakers, they don't often catch a cold when it comes to football betting on relegation or winning the Premiership.

Shortly after Mauricio Pochettino left I looked at Saints odds to go down, we were far from favourites for the drop, indeed 12 clubs were seen as more likely to go down.

Of course these were the early prices and there was a lot of time to go before the bookies can form a real view, but with just over three weeks to go before the big kick off it is starting to get a little more accurate.

Strangely though despite losing three players the bookies position hasn't changed much on our chances of being relegated, yes we have dropped a couple of places and are now 11th favourite for the drop, but we are seen as being more likely to be in the top half of the Premier than the bottom half and a long long way off being relegated.

Of course this is football and anything can happen, but perhaps looking at these odds brings home a dose of reality, compare the squad Saints had say two years ago for our first season back in the top flight and we are now far better prepared to tackle a Premier League season in almost every way be it in the quality of our players, the quality of the manager and the depth of the squad.

So there is really no need for supporters to have a feeling of impending doom, we are a club that has lost a few players and probably will lose one or two more, but we have the money to replace them as well as some promising youngsters that much nearer a first team spot than last season, we won't be challenging for the Champions League places but to be blunt we were never going to anyway, it takes more than a few hollow words to build a football club to that level in a short space of time.

What we can look forward to is a season where we should cement our place in the Premier League and perhaps look to win something in the domestic cups and in doing so earn a place in Europe.

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