"I told you so"

Last updated : 20 March 2005 By Keith Allman

I appreciate from the outset that whilst some will read this and think, "I agree", an equal number will probably read this and think, "What a load of rubbish". But such is the way things are these days, you're either a doom and gloom merchant who should go and support Southampton or, like me, a happy clapper who believes every word the club says and has my tongue inserted in a certain part of Mandaric's anatomy.

What I can't help but notice at the moment is that it's almost as if some people want us to fail. I've seen it a couple of times over the years but never on such a scale as recently, just so people can turn to their friends and say, "See, we should never have done this" or "How did we ever allow that to happen". The first thing that really brought my attention to it lately was Chalkias, where his first touch in a game - whether it be a harmless kick out or a comfortable catch - was met by some witty member of the crowd saying, "Oh, here we go again" or, "So you did it this time then". People were waiting for him to make a mistake and would pick up on anything and everything he did as proof he wasn't good enough just so they could say Zajec was wrong - but yesterday people happily sat in silence as Jamie Ashdown spooned kicks out of play, something that would've resulted in Chalkias getting hung, drawn and quartered.

Then there's the stadium. Whilst you can argue all day long about why it's taking an age to build - and I'd imagine it's because of a mixture of under-estimating how long it would take, a sprinkling of incompetence and a spoonful of genuine delays - some people seem to really not want us to build it. The longer we have it dragging on, the more they can use it to justify another rant at the club. "Milan won't build it because he doesn't want to spend anymore money"; "We couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery"; you get the idea. Of course the fact Milan has and continues to pump money into the club over the last six years changes nothing in this argument. I don't deny there has been some error of judgement in construction of the stadium, but some people seem to genuinely thrive on it and minutes after any announcement about the stadium, are happily decrying the developments to all who have the misfortune to be caught in ear-shot.

And finally, there's events on the pitch. We haven't been playing well lately and everyone knows it. We've had a blip and, coupled with a tough run of fixtures, we were always going to struggle. But some people seem to absolutely love the chance to stick the knife into the players, management, or chairman. When we have a draw or a win - not often of late I'll admit - they'll go quiet, but then once we lose suddenly it's out with the razor blades again and time to panic; we're definitely getting relegated and Zajec has the managerial ability of a koala. There seems to be no middle ground and no patience. Any reason to slag off Zajec is a good one and some people seem to want Southampton to do well just so they can get a dig in at Milan too, "See, I told you we should never have got rid of Redknapp".

I suppose it's nothing new. Last January people were saying Stefanovic was the weak link in our defence, Redknapp wasn't the man to keep us up and Milan should probably think about leaving (all genuine statements from Portsmouth fans). Why should things be any different a year later. I'm not burying my head in the sand and suggesting that all is perfect and well and good and happy and fluffy - but I can't help but observe that it seems to be physically impossible for some people to say anything POSITIVE about their club - the perfect example being one messageboard last night which carried the topic, "Winless again". Ignore getting a draw off the Premiership's form side then! I despair.

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