Confessions of a fairweather Southampton fan

Dear God, that Saints shirt is dreadful. As an aside, shame you didn't stay longer at Ebbsfleet v City, it was mildly entertaining, if bloody cold.

This article could easily have been written by myself (albeit mine would have been put much less elegantly).

A Southampton fan from childhood, I realised the other day that I've not set foot in St. Mary's for well over a year, instead preferring to watch non-league football (Eastleigh, Guildford City). That now means more to me than the 'glamour' of Southampton FC, with its high ticket prices and extortionate food & drink. To get overly poetic about it, it feels like the club has rather sold its soul in pursuit of glory.

"it feels like the club has rather sold its soul in pursuit of glory"

Sorry son but are you suggesting that a club that has apent 34 out of the last 46 years in the top flight should settle for mediocrity just to keep down the prices of tickets, pies and booze? Welcome to the real world.

BTW I don't like the new kit, it's more Bournemouth than Saints. I'm sure it's only been done so that we can have a "triumphant return to the stripes" at some future point.

Of course when I saw 'elegant' I mean 'eloquent' - which rather explains my point.

Re. Barnstoneworth (or 'dad', as you called me 'son'): I think I've failed to get my point across. I'm not saying the club shouldn't put the prices up - just that it's turning people like me, and the article author, away from watching them. I'm on the front line of football administration so am perfectly aware of the difficulties of the 'real world' but it's very easy to take supporters for granted.

Obviously this is a much wider problem with many facets, but surely this article shows that people are getting turned off from higher level football?

Why should promotion require higher prices of food & drink? They might be surprised of the effects of offering greater value to supporters...