The Saints
2017-18 Season

For the duration of the 2017-18 season this was the jumping off point for the sections on the change of ownership, the new manager, new players, Premier League, League Cup and FA Cup

Saints manager, Mauricio Pellegrino who was appointed in June 2017, had his hands full ever since, what with Virgil van Dijk's well publicised spat with the club over his wish to be transferred to Liverpool during the summer of 2017. Eventually the Dutchman had his dream move, which was completed in January 2018. Someone will write a book about this one day. It will not be me.

There was also the long mooted takeover by Jisheng Gao and his daughter Mrs. Nelly Gao in August 2017

Somehow football was squeezed in to the diaries. Though, for the most part it was pretty dire, with occasional bright spots

The last section added, is the page where we pay tribute to Rickie Lambert's career, a player affectionately known to many Saints fans as SRL (for Sir Rickie Lambert of course)

The final act was the sacking of Mauricio Pellegrino and Mark Hughes taking over on a temporary basis, with the task being simply to save Saints from relegation back to the Championship. It looked a lost cause, but amazingly it was achieved. Phew!