AN UNCOMFORTABLE FEELING..

Every day I pick up the newspaper, turn to the sports pages and it`s Southampton, The Saints, Koeman, Pelle, Tadic, and all the rest of it.   The pundits on Match of the Day, Goals on Sunday etc. are the same - it`s Saints this, Saints that, aren`t the Saints doing well, can they sustain their wonderful start to the season?.....and so on.  I quite expect the question to be raised in Prime Minister`s Questions on Wednesday.

It`s understandable, I suppose, that Saints fans are enjoying the change from parrot sickness to being over the moon and to be fair to us, it`s not we fans who have been shouting from the rooftops but the assorted sporting media.  We`re not used to it, you see - we know our place in the great scheme of things and it certainly is not lying second in the Premier League with only Chelsea in our sights and looking down on the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and a couple more `big clubs` who spirited away our manager and leading players from last season.

Now there`s a danger that we might slip into smug mode, displaying bragging rights and assuming that after all these years of turmoil the green pastures of safety and survival are finally behind us.   But we should be careful, for I have an uncomfortable feeling.  Not one that is concerned about the results on the pitch but rather one that is concerned about how best to avoid an unattractive smugness.  I almost slipped into it a couple of weeks ago when I was accused of being a `smug git` following the Saints 8-0 demolition of Sunderland.   

So we have to be careful to avoid the onset of the kind of arrogant smugness that pervades places like Old Trafford, Manchester, where years of success have nurtured that feeling of assumed entitlement that is simply not in the nature of us die hard Saints supporters.  Maybe once again it`s time for me to set up another  F***book page , this time devoted to the encouragement of modesty, restraint and quiet acceptance. There could even be a registered charity - Smug Gits Anonymous, it might be called - for surely there is already a captive audience in Manchester, West and North London for whom smug avoidance would be a distinct advantage.

But somehow I suppose any new F***book page I set up will probably suffer the same fate as my last one, DodderWatch, for people interested in that parasitic plant.  At the last count, there were only two `members,`  myself and someone I invited to join.  Now that`s what I call modest and a shining example to smug gits everywhere.