Do you consider yourself a supporter of Southampton Football Club or a customer ?

When Southampton FC was doing well a few years ago the biggest critiscism of Rupert Lowe in the absence of anything detrimental to say of the teams performance on the pitch was that he treated the fans as Customers and not supporters.

A lot of indignant words were bandied around as supporters were quick to have their say and point out that they were loyal to the club and deserved to be treated better and recognised by the club as such, in truth though this wasnt just a Southampton thing, its still relevant today across the premier League and beyond.

However it seems that the bulk of our supporter base is falling into the customer diagnosis rether than supporter this season.

To elaborate the reasons given by many as to why they arent attending games at St Mary's, ie lack of entertainment, value for money, cost of going, dont like the staff, etc etc are more akin to the grips of disgruntled customers of a business, to be blunt you patronise a business when its giving you what you want and dont when it isnt.

But when did anyone go to watch Saints to be entertained, five years ago 02/03 we were doing well, but was it entertaining, the stats say no, yes we reached the cup final but in 19 home games we ony scored 26 goals and 10 of them came in three games, genuinely exciting games were at a premium, Arsenal at home 3-2 was one of them, but does anyone remember the only other two games that we scored more than two goals at SMS ?

But the average crowd was approx 32,000 and the ticket prices were touching £38, any complaints ? NO only from those that couldnt get a ticket for the cup final, football fnas across the leagues dont go to enjoy games they go to support their clubs.

Back then everyone was a supporter because it was easy to be one, but can the same be said today.

Now the times are hard it seems that  many who would consider themselves supporters are fitting the profile of a customer or dare I say it consumer, they are picking their games and using the definitions a consumer would use, the same phrases come up time and time again.

Now dont get me wrong its everyones choice as to what level they follow the football club, if you choose to support Saints as 15,000 are still doing then thats your choice, but if you are staying away then hey thats also your choice, football has always been that way, the pecking order is there as it always has been.

At this moment in time Southampton Football Club needs your support, it doesnt need your custom randomly, each individual makes their own decision as to where they lie in the food chain so to speak.

I would like to point out a few things here, I dont write these things to annoy people or get up their noses, I write them as i genuinely care for the football club, I can see where we are headed and if i can do something to stop the rot and get the supporters behind the CLUB, thats is the CLUB not an individual then at least i will have achieved something.

Hopefully some might read this and do a little more to support the club, sadly I think most will not is Southampton FC no better than the cinema at Leisure World to us, I am a customer of Leisure World I go only when their is a good film on, I am a supporter of Southampton Football Club through the good or the bad times.

Photo: Action Images

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