Saints now head into a seven day period that will see three games played and by the end of it the way forward for the rest of the season well and truly clearly mapped out.

There have been few weeks in the history of Southampton Football Club where in such a short period of time three important games have been squeezed in, I can remember ones where perhaps two came together, but not a period such as this one.

We start with a trip to Prague to take on Sparta, a defeat would not be fatal, but a win would see us at the least on the very cup of winning the group, it would be certainly in our hands.

Then at the weekend there is the little matter of the return of Ronald Koeman with his Everton team, although this is perhaps the least important of the trio of fixtures, it is still vital to win and propel ourselves up the table and indeed within two points of the Toffees and handily placed to continue our quest for a fourth consecutive top ten placing and hopefully even better a third in a row top seven finish, either would see that as the best run of final top flight placings in our history.

Then on Wednesday we head to London to take on Arsenal in our third attempt in a row to secure a League Cup semi final spot.

This highlights just how well we have built the foundations of the club over the past three seasons, at this stage in 2013 we would have been ecstatic to have been in the top ten and in the quarter finals of the League cup not to mention Europe, but there are some who can't seem to enjoy this fact but prefer to point out incessantly that "We can't keep on selling our best players etc etc repeat ad nauseum"

Well the good news is that this way of doing things has produced just about our best ever sustained period as a football club, so we must be doing something right, of course we would have liked to have held on to all our players, but the reality is that when the process started in 2014 we had a side that finished 8th, it needed investment to finish higher and without selling players that would not have happened.

Those Saints fans who believe that it is as simple as just telling players they are staying and they accept it with a smile need to look at the state of football in England today, it is a game riddled with corruption and with money at the root of that evil, we are succeeding not by trying to outspend clubs that have wealth beyond our means, but by taking them on on our terms.

That has worked very well and brought us success, more to the point it has enabled us to build a squad with 20 International players in it of Premier League standard and not just 10-12 as we had three seasons ago.

So lets go into this crucial week right behind the team and indeed the club and it's structure, the only football supporters in England who don't seem to admire our structure are ironically a proportion of the Saints fans themselves who say we can't keep doing it and prosper.

Well we tried the other methods and couldn't prosper so i'm not going to slag off a structure that works.

This is perhaps the greatest week in the 131 year history of the club in terms of where it could leave us if we were to win all three games, football is all about aspirations, we Saints supporters have had plenty of those over the years, but rarely have they come off or indeed all come together in a single week with our fate in three competitions all in the balance.

This is an exciting time, we cannot change the past but we can change the future !

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 11:08 - Nov 21 "Well the good news is that this way of doing things has produced just about our best ever sustained period as a football club". Yes it has but I think a lot of supporters, including myself, feel that that period may really be coming to an end this time. It is quite true that you can't make players stay (Leicester even won the league and still lost their best player) and most of us have an emotional reaction to the departures but accept the reality of it. The problem is that with the constant departures of our best players there is EXTREME pressure to get it right with the replacements. Yes we have done very well up to now but I am seeing something different this season. We have brought one or two 'prospects' in but none that are already up and running. Redmond is unlikely to ever be good enough and Austin is not the all-round centre forward we need. The others haven't got the luxery of a season or two to 'develop'. We need them NOW - and in our attacking options we haven't got them. I believe a major blunder has been committed. We can endlessly debate whether that was due to penny-pinching or just a mal-function in the black box or even complacency (there was even an article on the BBC this week about haow marvellous we are). I, of course, hope I am wrong and I accept that we have a lot of games to play + I always panic when we are not doing well - but this season does feel different and that is not stats or other off-field comparisons it is simply watching the team on the pitch. I have many times in my long life thought or said "we don't look like scoring" but that was when we were a bottom six team....

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halftimeorange added 11:49 - Nov 21 I don't believe that Everton is the least important of these three matches. The other two are effectively one-offs and we could afford to lose in Prague and still qualify and Arsenal are prone to misfire so it depends on how they play on the night. Everton, however, is a barometer of where we are in the league and Saints should at least be able to match them. If not, any team above the bottom three might be capable of scoring more goals than they concede against us and that spells trouble. I still think that few team will take three points from St Marys this season but many are well capable of taking one.

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bstokesaint added 13:04 - Nov 21 I totally agree with every point you make Nick. As fans we are always crying out to win something and the games against Prague and Arsenal are our best routes for that. Although we could still qualify with a defeat in Prague I personally wouldn't be comfortable with the additional pressure of a must-win final game. Plus Prague were in my opinion the worst side we've played in the Europa so far. Their attack was virtually non-existent and their defence was ropey. A win against Arsenal is always satisfying and they tend to take risks in the League Cup with their team selection, so you'd have to say if we can sort out our front line we'll have a chance of progressing. And then there's the Everton game. I'd love to see us get one over on Ronald, but I don't necessarily see it as an important game, only in that if we can get can back on some kind of winning streak it can only be a good thing. With Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea all looking to have much better seasons in the league this time around that in itself will make a higher finish in the league that much tougher, especially given that a few of the clubs above us don't have European commitments. Personally I'd take regular finishes between somewhere between European qualification and mid table every season, provided we were in the mix for some silverware. Surely that's what we've all been crying out for isn't it?! Let's be honest a club only really gets remembered for the trophies it wins.

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saintmark1976 added 03:55 - Nov 22 Nick,at the risk of being called a "wet blanket" in regard to our current cup adventures how you can say that the Everton game is the least of our concerns is frankly beyond me. To add a touch of realism can I just remind you of our current Premiership form. We have taken two points from the last possible twelve. We have scored two goals,one from a misplaced back pass and the other from a penalty during these last four games. Currently we are below Watford, Bournemouth and West Brom and level with Burnley in league positions being only four points above the relegation positions. Like all Saints fans I hope we win every game. However any progress in cup competitions will be long forgotten should we exit the Premiership which our current form suggests is not beyond a possibility.

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steve73 added 09:13 - Nov 22 I'd like to see a bold approach this week, take all the games by the scruff of the neck and go for it. I didn't subscribe to the view at first but sadly I'm starting to find this style of football pretty boring. And one thing we've always enjoyed as Saints supporters is that life is never dull, even when it's been crap. But this is tepid, functional football at best. In the past when we've been shy of goals you hear the old cliches about how it's only a matter of time until we give someone a good tonking. No chance of that happening now against anyone. Still wound up that we actually played for a nil nil at home on Saturday. Hopefully I'll be corrected in the most condescending manner possible.

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