Sunday at Wembley was obviously very disappointing, but things have to move on and we have to try and finish the season with a flourish, let's not let the past bring us down, we have to move forward and Ralph Hasenhuttl Is the man to do that.
Losing FA Cup semi finals is nothing new to me as a Saints fan, sadly losing them with a poor performance is sadly also nothing new either.
Back in 1984 we went into the semi final with a struggling Everton team as clear favourites, we gambled on playing a clearly unfit Steve Williams and put in a lacklustre performance, likewise against Liverpool in 1986 although we did have the excuse that they were en route to a League & Cup double , something that had only been done twice previously in the century up to then.
Back in 2018 we went to play Chelsea at Wembley with no confidence whatsoever and failing to sell our full allocation (although neither did Chelsea) showed an apathy in the supporters that was the backlash from the previous season under Claude Puel who was sacked due to fan pressure despite taking the club to 8th and the League Cup final.
This year we went to Wembley with hope and having spent the last three seasons not having fought against relegation and there is one man to thank for that and that is Ralph Hasenhuttl.
The Austrian has had to work under conditions that are far from under his control, so he has done a great job, some moan about him having no plan B, but for the most part of 2021 he has struggled to have a plan A because of so many injuries.
Yes Wembley was a disappointment in a way that three years ago wasn't the case and this perhaps shows how good a job Ralph Hasenhuttl has done, he has raised our expectations to a level where we expected to beat a side that is sat 3rd in the Premier League and likely to finish at least in the top 4, whereas back in 2018 Chelsea sat 5th when we played them at Wembley and that is where they ended up.
So those who have been decrying the faults of Ralph Hasenhuttl should perhaps consider that we have moved forward under him and before they drive him out of the club, consider just who would replace him, another journeyman manager like Mark Hughes perhaps, a name in football but just looking for another payday with no real interest in longevity.
Ralph Hasenhuttl should have our backing because he has taken us forward into a position where we are expecting success again and he has committed himself to this club in a way that no other manager has since the departure of Chris Nicholl 30 years ago, he is building something at Saints slowly but surely and as they say Rome wasn't built in a day .
Ralph is often compared to Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and it is easy to draw comparisons, when Klopp arrived at Anfield, Liverpool were a side who had not won the title in 35 years, they had tried manager after manager and were starting to fall into the trap of sacking them the moment things hit a rocky patch, but with Klopp they stuck with him, they saw that foundations needed to be built.
He was there to win them the Premier League title, his start wasn't easy in his first season they finished behind us in 8th, it took him four seasons to win a trophy and five to land the prize that Liverpool coveted the Premier League, but Liverpool kept faith and that is what we need to do with Ralph.
Yes the game at Wembley on Sunday was disappointing, it was a dour game and we didn't get a shot on target, but it was a typical semi final and it takes two teams to make a match and the fact is that Leicester City perhaps the 3rd best team in the country at present, didn't exactly do much more than us, the only difference between the two sides we a 30 second spell when Leicester had two shots and scored after a lucky rebound.
Very few Saints fans have actually sat back and reflected on this, they accuse Ralph of a lack of a plan, but to pile forward against Leicester and their counter attacking game would have been folly, the game management was right from Ralph, we could not afford to let Jamie Vardy get one on one too often, if we had then perhaps we would truly have something to moan about.
But now we have to move forward again, no one is pretending that the last few months have been great and no one is pretending that at times the manager has to take some of the blame, but in the case of Ralph Hasenhuttl the truth is our problems have been more to do with what he has had to work with.
Some think that in football problems are easily solved, the owner throws in a big wedge for transfers and hey presto you are competing for a place in the Champions league, Everton are evidence that is not the case and they are also an example of how changing the manager almost yearly just undoes a lot of the foundations that have been built and the new man has to start from scratch.
So do we want Saints to be like Everton of the last five years or do we want to be more like Liverpool and slowly but surely build foundations that can enable us to challenge the top 10 again.
We need continuity and Ralph Hasenhuttl's work at the club runs far deeper than just first team results, he has been heavily involved in planning behind the scenes in the academy and all areas of the club.
Some will sneer and say look at the results the academy is getting and they do have a point, but the 18 -20 year olds in the teams there today have in the main been at the club for 8 years or more, they are a product of a different regime, most of the youngsters that have broken through such as Nathan Tella or Michael Obafemi have joined from other clubs within the last 5 years.
Again we are having to work on bringing the academy up to scratch again and the work that Ralph does in that department is mainly unnoticed.
Of course I am as disappointed as anyone with losing football matches and the way we have dropped since those heady days of October, November and December, but I look at the reasons why we had those defeats and from that perspective Ralph Hasenhuttl is not the main factor, not even close.
I respect people should have opinions, but if you are going to get on the managers back and demand he be sacked at least suggest an alternative and I have seen few rants on social media about Hasenhuttl where a viable alternative is suggested.
I don't want a journeyman manager such as Mark Hughes, I don't want Eddie Howe a man who is familiar with 12 game winless runs in the Premier League having had two in the same season last term, I don't want a name manager who is just looking for a home where he can earn a few bob until the "right" job comes up.
I want a man who is committed to the club, who sees it as a project not as a job, for me that man is Ralph Hasenhuttl, I will take suggestions and explanations as to who will replace him and show me one with better attributes than Ralph and who is a realistic target for the club and I will agree with you.
We have to learn from the past, but we have to stop dredging it up, otherwise it will drag us down.
In the meantime we have to look at the future, the Premier League may be completely different next season, football is certainly changing, I see the European Super League proposals as an opportunity for the majority of football clubs to reclaim the game, lets be honest when we trudge to see the likes of Manchester City at St Mary's we go with trepidation and with little hope, if they are gone every game will be winnable and football supporters go to games to see their team win games, give me a 3-2 win over Burnley over watching some overpaid superstar tear us apart.