Sometimes when you read social media surrounding Southampton FC you would think that the Saints supporters are deserting their team in droves and an air of anger & negativity regarding regarding both the club & Sport Republic, but ticket sales do not seem to reflect this.
Of course no one was happy with Saints getting relegated, but when you support a football team, you have to take the rough with the smooth, 15 years ago we were certainly taking the rough and for a while things looked desperate, but a core of 20,000 supporters kept going to matches and that grew as we moved up the leagues again.
The perception is that back in 2009 everything became rosy again with immediate effect after the arrival of Markus Liebherr, the reality though was different, we started the season with a 10 point deduction, given the amount of money we were spending back then in relative terms compared to the other teams in the division, we really should have at least made the play offs and been promoted through that channel.
But we started the season badly and were always playing catch up, a late rally meant that after the 10 point deduction we finished 7 points short of the play offs, we paid the price for not winning until our 8th League game and only taking 9 points from our first 10 games.
Truth is in 2009/10 we underachieved big time, the fact that Markus has saved the club sweetened the blow and add to that the Johnstone Paints Trophy win at Wembley, it makes that season seem a success and not a failure.
But a failure it was, it took time for the new regime to turn things around and get promotion and indeed in 2010/11 we started just as badly, 9 points in our first 9 games and only in the 10th when we beat Bournemouth at St Mary's did we start to get going.
We moved forward and prospered back then because the supporters got behind the team and more to the point they gave the owners a chance to turn things around and get things right.
The other perception is that the Saints fans were right behind Markus Liebherr from day one and packed St Mary's whilst it is true that 50,000 went to Wembley for the JPT, in the League it was different, the average at St Mary's was 20,982, just 3,000 up on the previous season that saw us relegated from the Championship, even in 2010/11 when we stormed to promotion it was only a slight increase to 22,161.
That was less than the average in our first season after relegation from the Premier League in 2005, our first season in the Championship saw an average of 23,614, a drop of almost exactly 7,000 supporters, of course you have to factor in larger away supports in the premier League, but it was still a big drop.
But this season it seems to be different, although on social media it seems that it is all doom and gloom around St Mary's, the supporter base seems to be rallying around.
When it was announced that Sheffield Wednesday away in the opening game would be televised on a Friday night, I thought we would be lucky to get 1,000 fans travel, so I was shocked when we quickly sold out the initial 2,400 allocation and now with extra tickets we are approaching 3,000 supporters backing us in Yorkshire.
Back to 2005 and we played Wednesday at Hillsborough in the 3rd game of the season in the Championship, the first away game on a Saturday, we won 1-0 with Kenwyne Jones scoring, there were barely 1,000 Saints fans up there on that day to see it.
It is not just the away support that is staying loyal, it seems the home supporters as well are keeping the faith, reports say that we have sold more season tickets this year than we did last, a look at the online ticket site for the visit of Norwich City next week suggests that there are only around 3,000 tickets available in the home sections, given that Norwich have a good away support that could see a gate of around 28,000 for this game, around 4,000 more than saw our season opener in 2005 against Wolves.
So it seems that whilst some on social media work hard to drag up something negative to talk about, the bulk of Saints supporters are quietly getting on with not only supporting the team, but also giving Sport Republic the chance to put things right.
So why is our support increasing when it would be natural that it decrease, my thought is that it is due to returning Saints supporters, back in the 2009 there was a hardcore of 20,000 or so fans, that gradually increased in our two promotion seasons, but as the second Premier League era wore on many of the fans who had followed the team through thick and thin in League One and the Championship drifted off, disillusioned with the Premier League and all that surrounds it, they lost interest.
I would say that by about 2018 the demographic of the home support had changed, perhaps only 10,000 of the 2009-12 era still remained and they had been replaced by not only the younger generation coming through, but by those who were attracted by Premier League football.
I often speak to people who went to virtually every game in the 2009-2012 years but haven't set foot in St Mary's for 5 years or more.
Bizarrely some of them have bought season tickets at St Mary's for the coming season !
No it seems that a sizable chunk of them are returning and not only that but we are not losing last season's support in the numbers we did 18 years ago when we last were relegated from the Premier League.
So it seems that a lot of our supporters feel that there are a lot of positives surrounding Southampton FC, that we can bounce back to the Premier League, that yes relegation was a blow and mistakes were made along the way, but that is true of everything in life, that mistakes do not have to be terminal, that they can be rectified.
They also see the reality of the situation, in my opinion the Premier League cannot survive in it's present form, certainly the Saudi Arabian Super league could rival it as a major force due to the money being thrown at it, a European Super League, even a World Super League is inevitable.
That being the case, clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United etc will re brand themselves as not members of the Premier League, but the European Super league etc.
Football will change and although it will be tough initially for the rest of us and the money will drop, perhaps the surge in ticket sales at St Mary's suggests that the appetite is there for those that want the experience of being in the stadium and supporting their team.
We all used to be just football fans. now we are split into those that go to games and those that watch on TV, the televised audience is the most lucrative as Saudi Arabia are about to start to prove.
So this season could be a good one for Southampton FC, perhaps it won't be as good as we all hope, but it seems that a lot of Saints fans are positive about it and going to enjoy supporting their team, watching football should be enjoyable, watching your team and supporting it whether you win or lose, every defeat does not have to be doom and gloom, we need to all get back to enjoying football for what it is and not frothing at the mouth.
For those that disagree and feel that Sport Republic have to go, then there is always the option of protesting outside St Mary's, but that is perhaps too old school and Social Media offer a far better and effort free alternative,