Over the past few years the Capital One Cup has not been seen as a priority for Saints, now that all needs to change as we head up to Stoke City for a place in the quarter finals.
Mauricio Pochettino made himself quite clear during his time at Saints, he saw the Capital One Cup, indeed all cups as a distraction from what he saw as the main target and that was Champions League Qualification.
Now i have never had any problem with ambition so long as it is linked with realism and achievable targets along the way, all of which lead to that ultimate goal, however under Pochettino I never thought that was the case, I always felt that the ambition that our ex manager professed to have had no basis in his actual track record,but more to the point there seemed to be no plan how as a club we were going to jump from 14th in 2012/13 and what had been mostly a relegation battle, to challenging for the Champions league qualification places with little substance in between, in short it was little more than idle boasting, in mathematics 2+2 will always equal 4, but in football the best laid plans of mice and men can not only go wrong, but not go to plan even when you have done everything right.
Now however we seem to have a manager and Chairman who in sporting terms not only know what they are talking about, but have walked the walk, Ronald Koeman has played at the top level and managed there too, Ralph Krueger not only has a background in professional sport but has had a career in motivation techniques, he more than anyone knows that you have to put the foundations in place and if they are not there, even spending multi millions will not guarantee you success, look how long it has taken Man City to become a force.
This being the case it seems that unlike Pochettino who saw both Cup competitions as a distraction from the League, we as a club now see doing well in them as a natural progression, our ambitions are now clear, we want to establish ourselves in the top 10, build on that to challenge for a higher place in that top 10 and look to qualify for European competition either through the league or by winning one of the cups.
But winning even the Capital One Cup is much more than just winning a trophy, of course it does get you in the record books and gives your supporters a day out at Wembley, but it is a lot more than that, it is firstly a statement of intent that you are able to compete rather than just make up the numbers and it secondly gives you European competition.
Both of these reasons are crucial if a club is to establish itself and move up to the next level, if you want to sign good players and keep them, then playing in European competition is crucial, all players want to be in the spotlight in this way, even if it is only the Europa League rather than the Champions League.
So the trip to Stoke is perhaps the most important game of the season so far, win it and we are in the quarter finals, a good draw could see us into the semi finals and on the cusp of Wembley, if we can do that then it makes the January transfer window a lot easier for a start, both in and out of the club, if the likes of Spurs come a calling in January then it will be a lot easier to hang on to players if we are the club on the verge of a Wembley appearance and they are a club in disarray, similarly in the summer would Morgan Schneiderlin for instance prefer to stay at Saints and play in Europe or go to a club who are not in that competition.
That is the thing that Pochettino or Nicola Cortese never grasped,that although money is a big big issue for players wanting to leave, the chance to win something and play in Europe is also a big carrot and should not be underestimated.
The next step for Saints is to emulate the likes of Everton and Spurs and that is to be a club that competes and challenges rather than just makes up the numbers, when we can do that we can talk about the Champions league, after all if it was a easy to qualify for as our ex Chairman often suggested, why have so few clubs actually managed to do so outside of the usual suspects.
Hopefully now we are positive in all areas as a football club, the old saying is that "Chase money and you will never catch it, chase success and money will come to you" is still relevant for clubs like Saints in football.