After a week of celebrations the post mortem of last season and the analysis of what we need next season is about to start and before it does we probably need to lay down a few points to remember.

When I try and give an opinion about what Southampton Football Club has done, how it has played, what players need to be replaced or what type of player needs to arrive, readers need to take into account that its merely an opinion, my opion obviously and only one of many, if even people on the same coaching staff at football clubs (Im referring to all clubs across the board here) cannot agree all of the time, then its safe to assume that trying to get the many people who read these articles to all concur on what I am saying is going to be impossible.

What I try to do in my articles is highlight the areas that you dont read about on the official site, they and quite rightly so are there to put out the good things about the club and not highlight the bad, there is nothing wrong about that its what official club websites do, but I try to look at things a little differently.

This means I constantly get comments that sometimes verge on the abusive, " We im quite happy with the position that we are in " is one comment that is often indignantly thrown at me or " Well I didnt expect to be in this position so im not complaining" whilst I can see why people think this way, its not the way Nigel Adkins will be considering the position.

A look back at any promoted club's message boards over the past few years will probably show a pretty similar pattern, after promotion it will be all praise for the players and manager, but when the clubs struggle the following season and are fighting relegation, the attitudes change and the same manager and players are castigated by the same people who worshipped them six months earlier, supporters and for that matter club chairmen who back in May talked of a manager having a job for life after getting the side up, suddenly are talking of the sack, if you look at clubs who got promotion over the past five years or so and then looked at how many of the managers who got them it were not still at the club 18 months - 2 years later and the stats are quite frightening.

But last year both Norwich and Swansea bucked that trend or at least have done so far, they have done that because the manager's knew that they had to make changes and evolve the team and did not sit back on their laurels, they also knew that they had no time for sentiment and that if they didnt improve then they would be relegated, contrast that with QPR who had a far less stable enviroment and preferred big name signings to journeymen and their struggle at the bottom that might yet still end in the drop and you might see my point.

So over the coming weeks I will attempt to look at various areas of the team and what needs to be done in these areas, I will attempt to highlight what I see as our weak points and why they need to be addressing, I wont be highlighting the strong points, every player has those and we all know what our teams one are, but it isnt the strong points that keep you from relegation, its eradicating the weak ones and that goes with any team be it a Title chasing side or one fighting relegation.

So lets all look at the coming season and what we need to do pragmatically, of course people will disagree and thats what makes football the game it is because its all about opinions and this is why we all love it and why its the biggest game in the world, there are no certainties in football !

Photo: Action Images

bearsintheair added 12:44 - May 7 if you saw the game on friday blackpool/brum you saw the way blackpool played with the ball on the ground there whole team were invoved with going forward . there midfield players in stead of passing the ball sideways then backwards they beat there fellow opponenents then they tried to pass between there centre backs so that there forwards could create chances. in saints midfield this season only adam has the skill to beat players and put a forward pass through cork hammond chaplow just pass the ball sideways & backwards then its just a whoof up field & hope you can get the ball back. norwich/swansea all there players from back to front keep the ball & pass pass until there is an opening . if you watch westham/cardiff tonight all you will see tonight is cardiff whoffing the ball forward from the back trying to get corners & throwins becouse thats they only way they have of creating goal chances . me i want to see footballers passing the ball showing there skills not athletes running in staight lines & lasting 90 minutes becouse they are supposed have good engines & have just got a great 0-0 . its simple next season just pass the ball keep a high tempo & make sure the whole of the team are invoved not just 5/6 players . & if we are going to sign new players lets hope they can keep the ball & pass it let the ball do the work we dont want athletes we want footballers

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Fordy added 12:54 - May 7 I'm sorry I don't really buy the "QPR bought heavily and didn't do well, Norwich and Swansea bought journeymen and did" argument. It is too simplistic. If you look at what happened, QPR got off to a poor start and a lot of this had to do with a reliance on Abdel Taarabt who fired them through the championship but found the Prem a lot harder. They also had a huge number of problems behind the scenes. To say their problems stemmed from buying big name players isn't really true. A lot of their buys were panic buys because the finances were only in place a couple of days before the transfer deadline finished. Then it didn't really help changing managers half way through the season. Warnock knew he was a dead man walking and Hughes has taken some time to get going. I think if you had given Lambert and Rogers the choice of buying Zamora or Cisse over Morrison or Graham they might have chosen differently. They just didn't have the choice.

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Fordy added 13:02 - May 7 @bearsintheair I watched the Blackpool game and thought they would really struggle in the Prem again if they played like that. There was one five minute passage of play where both sides gave the ball away about 10 times. You just can't do that in the Prem. I know Blackpool are a bit more direct than Saints and are always looking for the killer ball but I'd rather back a side like Saints to do well in the prem when we can at least keep possession. I do agree that we could do with a bit more creativity from midfield though.

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Kiwifiedpom1 added 13:59 - May 7 It's your opinion as it is mine here. To start with Cortese, he is different from the normal Chairman, he's shown that often enough, so I think that barring incidents like Pardew's He'll give loyalty to Adkins as long as Adkins stays loyal to him. Whoever Adkins wants, he'll have to convince Cortese and it will be someone who fits in with the team ethos
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geezershoong added 15:17 - May 7 Well I certainly won't be turning on the players & staff next season whatever happens & I would like to have faith that others will do the same. Staying in the PL is a must, it won't be easy, we've been a bit spoilt over the last couple of seasons. Look where we were a few years ago. I'll take everyday in the PL as a bit of a blessing.
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