Whatever we may think, the fact of the matter is that speculation is what makes the footballing world turn round and fuels our love for the game.

Football is not a sport without passion and what stokes that passion is the constant media interest in the sport, many years ago that was confined to the back pages of our newspapers and although perhaps in recent years with the coming of the digital age and advent of social media sites its got a little out of hand, the truth is all of those who love the game love to talk about it.

Of course we prefer to talk about facts and what has happened, but in weeks like this when there is a big break between games and added to that the transfer window is shut, it leaves us having to rely on speculation, be it whether Del Pierro is going to join the club on loan or whether Billy Sharp jumped or was pushed. I have heard many conversations on football this week amongst Saints supporters be they verbally face to face or on message boards in a 21st Century fashion and love it or hate it, 99% of those conversations havent been about the facts surrounding Saints this week, I have heard no one discussing the fact that they could buy hospitality packages for the upcoming home game against Aston Villa, nor that Sheffield Wednesday tcketswill be on sale next week, of course they are important pieces of information for Saints supporters but they dont get the juices flowing.

Im not having a go at any media source here and especially not the official club web site that of course should feature these sort of articles to keep us all informed of what is going on, but they are not stories that get football supporters talking(OK then perhaps they get me talking, but I seem to be in a minority thats interested in corporate boxes), they are not stories that keep supporters interested, for any football club what enthuses someone to come along to a game is what he reads or hears in the media, if he doesnt read or hear anything then how does he know there is even a game taking place.

No look at any message board across any team in England and what fuelling our interest in the game is speculation, speculation about what players may arrive or go, who may play in the next game, whether the manager got it right or wrong with his tactics, how big the crowd will be in the next game, how well or badly an individual player  is performing, they are the topics that we love to discuss and take any one of them and you will get a myriad of opinions from both ends of the spectrum, how boring it would be if we all agreed, how quickly conversations about the game would end, because they would be so tedious and would they make us want to go to the next game ? I would say not, we go to fooball because of its unpredicatbility and part of that is the fact, that just about the only actual fact in football, is the result from the previous game !

My point here is that from the moment the game started in its current form, football supporters were speculating and argueing about its merits, the only reason professional football exists is because of the interest in it amongst the general public, without that interest it would decline and eventually die, be it through the turnstiles or watching the TV, the fact is that its only the supporters continued interest that brings so much money into the game.

So weeks like the this one are boring, no game to discuss on Saturday, no real transfer news, we are left with only scraps to feed off until we get past the weekend and the next game is in sight, until then we struggle to find enthusiasm until the roundabout of speculation starts to turn again.       

bstokesaint added 12:33 - Sep 7 And just think when we do come back we'll be able to see if our new signings were as good as the hype they have generated..	2 forum posts 445 news comments 1 match reports 0 blogs 0 polls

SaintNick added 13:17 - Sep 7 All im going to say on hype is remember Falque and the hype when we got him on loan	17192 forum posts 782 news comments 10 match reports 0 blogs 0 polls

ItchenNorth added 13:41 - Sep 7 So when do we start debating the hospitality packages for the upcoming home games?! I can't wait for that one on here lol !!	0 forum posts 38 news comments 0 match reports 0 blogs 0 polls

SingaporeSaint added 07:50 - Sep 8 Generally agree - speculation is what being a real fan is about - anyone can 'enjoy' the game for 90 mins - real fans think, talk and type about it for the rest of the week. To throw some speculation in there - I fear that all is not well at the top of our club. Recent press articles linked Redknapp with us and even comments on Twitter by MLT re NC do not imply a happy club. I like many have been baffled by the transfer behaviour this summer - we were linked with a top keeper, NA told the press we were signing 2 C halves, we were linked with at least 2 left backs. We changed formation to 4-5-1 - and most agreed we needed wingers and were linked with lots of them - Lens, Phillips, Trotter, Zaha etc.. We wait and wait and wait until the season starts - and we sign one C Half and 2 second strikers - we play a formation with only one up top. I'm not sure what went on between NA and NC over the summer - but was rumoured for much of the window NC was on 'holiday'.. This is the time you need your chairman at work! The rest of the time he was in Italy and appears that most of our targets were sacrificed in the pursuit of Ramirez. Manyuka came in from left field and again it is a surprising one for me, he's not a winger - although coming from Switzerland and NC being Swiss, you could see a connection. As ExciledSaint put on this site - I'm not convinced NA has had much to do with these signings.. We are left with a squad which appears very inbalanced and quite simply we are going to concede goals so we'd better score a few. NA's decisions to date have also been controversial - dropping Lambert at Man City, then dropping JWP v Wigan and finaly the 3 subs made which led to the heartbreaking defeat v Utd.. This is on top of playing Sharp so often in pre season he scoring goals and then shipping him out at the last minute, and quite what is the strategy with J Rod - he doesnt look a left winger to anyone.. There is very little in life I want more than Saints to sort this situation out and us to be successful but until there appears more stability at the top, I will be worried..

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SaintNick added 08:50 - Sep 8 a very well balanced post from singapore saints here that asks some good questions	17192 forum posts 782 news comments 10 match reports 0 blogs 0 polls

ExiledSupporter added 17:35 - Sep 9 Before reading Singapore Saints' post I had intended to suggest that some discussion about the new format of the official web site might have alleviated some of the 'boredom' of this week. My opinion is that it is even less revealing about what really matters to the fans than in the past, and that it was even more blatantly trying to get fans to sign up to Saints Player which between matches is a pretty sterile form of propaganda. However since Singapore Saints views are pretty much in accord with my own expressed earlier, his input has strirred up my irritation with the rather hapless and disjointed transfer policy pursued over the last few months - where official predictions and outcomes seem to be rather contradictory. In each of the first three games I have again been nervous about any balls crossed into our area since KD continues to be unconvincing not just with crosses but also about the whereabouts of his nearside post, how far he should advance towards incoming attackers often when he is virtually the last line of defence and his abysmal distribution (to be fair he does make some remarkable saves). But we do not appear to have a serious contender for the position, or is Gazzaninga a hot prospect (I have not seen him yet), let's hope so but I'm not convinced that NA will ever drop KD given his current options. Yet no new experienced keeper on the horizon. Ditto another CB and left back, but a proliferation of untried forwards instead, who may turn out to be ill equipped to fill the roles they are allocated; JR is already the most obvious case in point. There is a contradiction between declared priorities and intentions, squad skill profiles, formations adopted and actual transfers completed which does not breed confidence that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing

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