NORMALITY RETURNS ?

MELTDOWN.....TURMOIL.....CHAOS.....the headlines are screaming in joyful unison at the news that Southampton FC Executive Chairman, Nicola Cortese, has resigned and left the club after five years of unrivalled success.   A climb of 58 places in the football pyramid under his watch has seen Saints rise from Administration and the bottom of League One to the top 10 of the Premier League.   And there is renewed frantic speculation that team manager Mauricio Pochettino along with his backroom staff might also leave, as well as an unspecified number of players.  To add to the confusion there is now the prospect of the club being executively chairpersoned by the owner, Katharina Liebherr, who apparently know nothing about football.

On the face of it, it all seems to add up to meltdown, turmoil and, yes, even chaos and yet you get the feeling that those dire predictions are more the currency of the media than they are of die hard Southampton fans.  We`ve been here before, you see, on more than one occasion and at times that were arguably much more worrisome than this one.  

As a Saints fan for over 60 years, I`ve grown accustomed to meltdown, turmoil and their ilk but what I have never grown accustomed to in all that time is stability, consolidation and security both on and off the field of play.  For most of us, our default condition has invariably been anxiety, bewilderment and confusion and there is almost a sense that the present situation might enable us to return to our own rather unique version of normality.

Que sera, sera.