On Sunday Saints travel to Manchester City for a date with destiny, but whatever the result Saints supporters should celebrate what has been one of our best seasons ever as a club.
On Sunday at 5pm Saints may already be planning a European tour or they may be having to cross their fingers that Arsenal win the FA Cup the following weekend, but whatever happens and that includes the Gunners losing that final and Saints missing out on Europe, we Saints fans should celebrate just what the club has achieved this season and how much joy it has provided us all with.
A year ago this club was in turmoil and there were not many Saints fans who would have predicted just where we would be sitting a year later, some even spoke of meltdown and certain relegation, indeed even those who knocked back that idea were in the main talking of a season of consolidation and looking to finish around 10th -12th spot, in fact that would have been seen by many as success given the number of players that were leaving the club.
A year later and we are on the cusp of equalling our second best ever league finish, in fact even if the worst happens and we finish 7th, that would still rank as our fourth highest highest finish equally with season 68/69, 70/71, 81/82, & 89/90.
To put that in perspective we will only have had 3 better league finsihed in the entire history of the club, that being the monumentous season of 1983/84 when we finished 2nd, the Keegan era season of 1980/81 when we finished 6th and 1984/85 when we ended up 5th.
But listen to some people and you would think that this season had been a disaster and that we have a squad of underperforming, hopeless idiots playing, at various times Pelle, Long, Mane, S Davis, Tadic, Gazzaniga, Ward Prowse & even Fraser Forster have all come in for criticism from the fans and in most cases downright abuse.
So how on earth has this squad managed to be up there with those greats from the past ?
So we should sit back and take a long look at this season and see it for what it has been, it has firstly been one of rebuilding and we have to appreciate that Ronald Koeman had a very hard task when he took over and that although it is disappointing that we perhaps could have done a little better and that in the run in we dropped some points that earlier in the season we would not have, we have still rebuilt and improved.
Secondly we should look at those players that have received abuse and firstly recognise that all have tried their best in a Saints shirt and that all have made positive contributions to the season.
But mainly we should just celebrate what has been an exciting season that at times has seen as good a football as played anywhere, the excitement of some games where we could not stop scoring, Newcastle, Sunderland, Everton & not least Aston Villa all saw comprehensive high scoring victories at home, away from home there were some great results as well, starting with the 3-1 win at West Ham, the same score at Crystal Palace and of course that classic victory at Old Trafford.
There were also some great wins that although not comprehensive or high scoring where enjoyable and vital, the 1-1 draw at St Mary's with Chelsea followed up a few days later with a 2-0 home win against Arsenal, the 2-2 draw at home with Spurs and of course the 1-1 draw at Chelsea.
Both cups initially promised great things, the Capital One Cup saw a great win at Arsenal but ended in a disappointing defeat at Sheffield United, the FA Cup looked to be opening out but again we lost to Palace when we had a great chance to progress.
So what is there not to like in this season, yes it has not ended on the real high we all hoped and that means there is that late equaliser effect on it ie when you score a late equaliser it seems like you have won the cup, when you concede one it seems like relegation, having had such high hopes we feel a little deflated, but if it had gone the other way and we had come up on the rails we would be in ecstasy now.
So it now all comes down to one game, if we win and results go our way we could equal our second best ever season and that would be a fantastic achievement, but just being able to go into the final day with the opportunity to do so is still something to celebrate.
So even if we lose on Saturday and we have to pray for an Arsenal Cup final win, let us celebrate what has been one of our most exciting top flight seasons ever and our best ever in the Premier League era.
Southampton Football Club is now in good hands both on and off the pitch, it is about constant improvement, we have done that this season and we have done that from a position far worse than we neded last season in, we march on again next season and this has been another great step forward.