Saints fans need to unite behind the team on Sunday against Everton to help it get three points, rather than turn against it.

Social media is full of Saints fans indignant at our current situation, they complain that the club has no ambition, that this is not what they "signed up for" when they bought their season tickets, that they are not being entertained and that Les Reed should be sacked, Ralph Krueger is incompetent and a whole host of gripes.

Whilst it cannot be denied that there are issues at the moment on the pitch that need addressing, those who have followed the club over the past 30 years or so are a little bit more realistic about what the club has achieved over the past four years, in what has been our most consistent period in our history.

The end of last season marked our best ever run of finishes in the top flight, never before had we managed such consistency, yet many told the World very loudly that this was the worst ever season.

Now I am not going to tell anyone that they have not got the right to have an opinion on whether the club is going wrong or not, all I am going to say is base that opinion on reality and use a little reasoning, rather than ranting.

We all need to look at what we want from this season, do we want to pull away from the relegation zone or do we want to see ourselves dragged into it, personally I want Saints to win every game and pull away, I want Mauricio Pellegrino to succeed, even though at this moment in time I can't see that he will, it is not personal it is purely about winning games and then entertainment, in that order !

This being the case we have to look at what we want from Sunday's game, do you see it as a vital game that we need to get three points from, or do you see it as a chance to have a go at the manager and try and convince the board that he should be sacked.

If it is about winning the game and pulling away from the relegation zone, then we all need to be behind the team for the whole of the game and helping it find the motivation that at the moment they areclearly not getting from the manager, if we still lose the game there will be plenty of opportunity to rant and rave at the manager etc once the final whistle is blown.

If for you it is about showing the board that Pellegrino should be sacked, then don't even bother going to the game, history shows that vocal protests against manager's often force the board to show they are in command by keeping him in the job, it often prolongs the tenure of said manager and means that with a toxic atmosphere dragging down the team all it actually achieves is making it that much more difficult for his successor to repair the damage.

If you truly cannot get behind the team (And I mean the team here not the manager or board) then your best way of protesting is by staying away, you still make a big point to the board with the raft of empty seats, but you do not harm the teams chances. Football boards are swayed by lost revenue not a few people shouting in the stands or on social media.

Back in the early 90's things were much worse than they are now, I can assure you of that, the manager Ian Branfoot was determined to play a certain way and he was not getting results, the newly formed Southampton Independent Supporters Association orchestrated a campaign that although focused on making the fans views clear to the Saints board, also made sure that during games the fans got behind the team.

This meant that we saw some stirring victories and the crowd carried the team through and when Branfoot was sacked, his successor Alan Ball was able to keep the team up because of vital points gained during this period.

The message was clear then, protest only before the start of the game and after it, once the referee blew the whistle for kick off the Dell was passionately behind the team, not the manager or the board, but the team.

Of course times have changed in football, but not that much that we cant learn from the 1993/94 season, on Sunday we need the fans to be unified in their backing for the team, it needs to be one of those special St Mary's atmospheres.

This is a good squad of players, they are all proven in their abilities at this level, there is no reason why we should not win a few games and move up the league, we are still nearer to the top ten than the bottom three, that tells you something.

We have been spoilt over the past few years, I wouldn't quite say we have punched above our weight, but we have really hit the par score for Southampton FC, we have some great foundations, they are still there, it just doesn't feel like it at the moment due to the lacklustre performances on the pitch.

Photo: Action Images

TeamCortese added 16:05 - Nov 21 Nick you have a point but like others have pointed out in this forum it works both ways. For me, the common theme with our situation is the lack of strong positive leadership. This characteristic is most important on the pitch than anywhere else. Davis isn't a good enough captain--let alone good enough to get into the starting line-up. He shouldn't be captain and similarly VVD should be sold in January. Yoshida should be captain along with Romeu/Lemina deputy. Whilst I wouldn't say the above players are the ideal candidates they are the best we have. We are now seeing the results of our trigger-happy sales policy. Even ex-players like Fonte are saying it (listen from 1:15:44). http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09dy0vb Pretty much sums it up for me. We just need to survive this season and wait for Mr Gao or whoever to do a mass overhaul from top to bottom. Personally I would love to see Cortese brought back.

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SanMarco added 16:10 - Nov 21 He'd need to bring his magic money tree with him - anyone can be 'ambitious' but would Cortese last five minutes on just a big mouth and lots of promises??
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TeamCortese added 16:12 - Nov 21 Also Nick if the club is to remain united then it has to communicate openly with it's stakeholders. Number one being the FANS! Why is Adam Blackmore being denied an interview? The club is on the cusp of a crisis and as usual the board are remaining silent...
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TeamCortese added 16:20 - Nov 21 SanMarco: So you mean to say when he was helping us up the lower leagues and bringing in the likes of Poch and Adkins he had a huge mouth and wad of cash while doing it?
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DorsetIan added 17:29 - Nov 21 Something is not right but I'm not so sure it's the manager. The football at home at the end of last season was appalling, and yet Leicester can still see fit to pick up Puel. This year although we haven't picked up the home wins we should have, I honestly think we have been trying to play better. If we can limp through the next 5 weeks, some player changes in Jan might shake things up a bit and change out fortunes in 2018. VVD out, Walcott and Solanke in interests me. We can beat Everton on Sunday and then travel to Manchester looking for back to back wins (...just kidding about that last bit...)

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aceofthebase added 17:44 - Nov 21 It's time to play Yoshida. The guy has spirit and strength as well as an eye for goal so put him in midfield, certainly while Romeu has a break. To tell the truth I wouldn't mind seeing jack Stephens alongside him, wouldn't that be strange to see two burly midfielders in control for Saints helping out in defence and going forward to attack
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SanMarco added 18:05 - Nov 21 TeamCortese: Yes he did. He took us a long way on Marcus' wads of cash but he walked out as soon as reality overtook his loud ambition. The narrative that if Marcus hadn't died we would have spent our way to the top is hugely romantic, like all roads not taken, and of course we will never know. The more likely scenario, however, was that we would have become another Leeds and ended up back in the third without a pot to wee in. The "we haven't been ambitious enough" argument is a seductive one and maybe has some truth in it but I think the Cortese approach took us just about as far as it could. You will DISAGREE and apologies if the 'big mouth' comment was not to your liking. I never warmed to the man but I know lots did...

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TeamCortese added 18:30 - Nov 21 You never warmed to him SanMarco because you're clearly jealous of the success he brought to Southampton FC and the tough decisions he had to make along the way. Goodness me, what is wrong with some people on this forum? We're regressing as a club and the few individuals who actually made a positive difference are still being demonised...I'll never quite understand that...just weird. It almost feels symptomatic of how the club is being managed!

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WanderingSaint added 19:57 - Nov 21 Hopefully we’ll see a bit more unity than in this comments section! A tough ask, given the situation.
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underweststand added 20:09 - Nov 21 It can't be that easy for MP...he got landed with the squad and is playing the most experienced/expensive players in the hope they might click. The club (seemingly) thought last seasons goal drought would just be a bad memory and we'd begin to score again. The ugly reality is that whilst we field players who haven't scored for months, and can't score enough even get one point, let alone three. They're running up a blind alley. One recent stat. shows we score with only 5.6% of our shots, that's 162 shots = 9 goals and 3 of those penalties. We have no other choice of strikers before January, but we can try some of our alternative midfielders who may be a bit more creative. JWP, Hesketh and Hojbjerg should get a run of games for a start. If the strikers haven't found any form by the New Year, the outcome of that is obvious.

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SanMarco added 20:11 - Nov 21 TeamCortese: If that is your level of argument then you ought to look at yourself rather than 'others on the forum'. I could ask how a Saints supporter of 53 years standing such as myself could be 'jealous' of Saints success and also how not warming to someone is 'demonising him' - but I won't because you are not worth arguing with. You are right WanderingSaint - always less unity when things are not going well!!

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kingolaf added 20:22 - Nov 21 Nick, Branfoot did have the players to play differently, as Alan Ball proved when he took over. Branfoot had Matty on the bench for goodness sake.
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TeamCortese added 23:15 - Nov 21 Very good SanMarco you managed dissect my previous comments with quotes....bravo! All I can say is if after 53 years of supporting Saints FC you're lambasting people like Cortese yet at the same time jumping on the Nick bandwagon by making comments such as 'we've been spoilt and never had it better' then I take it being paradoxical qualifies as a relevant quality for being a Saints fan? Whether I'm qualified or not I for one have always endeavoured to be consistent with my view of Southampton Football Club and I am not going to agree with someone because they can remember an era that quite frankly is no longer relevant. We're no longer in 1966 or 1976 for that matter. It's the year 2017 and we need competent individuals both on and off the pitch to maintain our top flight status. At the moment fans are not being heard and to make matters worse the club is ignoring us and doing the same thing. That is the definition of insanity. The board should know that without the fans Saints FC is nothing and that should be respected. We cannot afford to go back to those dark-days in the lower leagues and more importantly we must not undo all the hard work that got us our top flight status in the first place.

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SaintPaulVW added 05:46 - Nov 22 Well if on Sunday, we are showing the same spirit of togetherness as these comments do...... COYR
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SaintBrock added 15:17 - Nov 22 This Unity crap is a myth fans are just a faceless grey backcloth to the football money laundering racket called the premier league. Everyone that fans like to think of as part of a big Saints Family, players, owners, board members are no more than money grubbing self-seeking millionaires who have no understanding of or interest in the lives and concerns of ordinary folk. They are not playing the game for us, the results matter to them only to the extent that it will affect their future income streams.

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