So that`s it.   Another football season comes to a shuddering halt.  Well, almost;  just the FA Cup Final, the Play-Off Finals and the World Cup to get over and we can all sleep peacefully in our beds for a night or two.   

For us Saints fans, the season has been a good one - eighth place in the Premier League, the self-styled "best league in the world (tm)" and hopes for the future.  But wait a minute.  At the last rumour count, the price of that relative success could see the departure of.....

.....Manager Mauricio Pochettino and his backroom staff to Tottenham

.....Left back Luke Shaw to Manchester United 

.....Captain Adam Lallana to Liverpool

.....Centre back Dejan Lovren to Liverpool

.....Midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin to Arsenal

.....Right back Callum Chambers to Arsenal

.....Striker Jay Rodriguez to Tottenham

.....all of which would tear great big holes in the team, the club and the peace of mind of supporters.   But in the madcap parallel universe of Premier League football anything can happen.  Who knows?  Time will tell.  

This season, as ever, I have also followed the fortunes of neighbourly interests and seen both Mr. Slightly`s Gillingham and our street`s gay icon pacy flanker Scott ("Buzzin` Six Pack") Wagstaff and his Bristol City chums reach the sanctuary of mid table security in League One. But I sometimes wonder what it must be like to be a supporter of teams lower down in the football pyramid and it has been events even lower down that have caught my attention with the likes of Droylesden, Totton, Truro City and the New Forest`s very own Bashley. 

Of all of those, I`ll just pick out the season experienced by aficionados of Droylesden in the Evo-Stick Northern Premier League.  In their 46 league matches, they won two, drew three and lost the other 41.   They managed to score 40 goals all season but conceded 182, leaving them with  goal difference of minus 142 and ending the season with just nine points and relegation to the Evo-Stick First Division North.

Now my beloved Saints may have hit their glass ceiling - their resources, the size of their stadium and catchment area may make it difficult to aspire to the mythical `next level` but being a Saints fan is for life, not just the Premier League and so if a turning point has been reached where the only way is either down or settling for  mid-table obscurity then que sera sera indeed.  No complaints from me.  After all,  I could have been a Droylesden fan.