NOW that the Premier League part of the season has ended, it’s safe to say that Saints could have done better.

As I’ve said before, we’ve had good parts and bad, but looking at the final league table, the bad bits obviously are the fact we let in 68 goals. Only one team, West Brom, let in more and they were relegated. Fortunately we scored enough to get the extra points, which kept us safe. But we have to be looking up more and it will be interesting to see which players come and go.

It is, of course, all about money.

Owners of clubs have been in the news a bit more recently. Obviously with that mention of six of the bigger clubs pulling away to form a Super League, which didn’t happen. But their owners, all multi-millionaires, I don’t think any of them are living in the area where the club was. They really got hammered by the true supporters, who have kept clubs going by their support, many years before the present owners were even heard of.

But our two owners, Gao Jisheng with 80 per cent and Katharina Liebherr with 20 per cent, have been quite quiet. I don’t think anybody is bothered about them being interviewed week after week, but they would really be interested to see if they are sitting down at any time with the management side and the full-time senior staff to talk about what they can inject to get the type of player that Ralph thinks we need.

I would think that players who are not being kept on will have now been informed, but unless their contract is already up, they will still be at the club if no-one else wants them. That is when managers and their staff can have an awkward time when the pre-season training starts again, when some of these players will realise they’re not really wanted, but because no-one else came for them, they’re still there. That’s when the coaches have got to keep an eye on what’s happening in the dressing rooms, as much as the manager has to on the pitch.

James deserved the call

So, now that the club games are out of the way, we still have the Euros to look forward to and fortunately James Ward-Prowse, our captain, is deservedly in the provisional England squad. But I feel sorry for Danny Ings, who was in the group at times last year, but didn’t make the final squad for this tournament. But he himself will realise that he has had a few spells this season when he was out injured. This enabled other players to catch the England manager’s eye. But he’s still got time in the future, hopefully, to join James in the squad.

Upcoming charity events

Away from the football side, I have to mention the Saints Foundation, which does a magnificent job for charities in and around our area. I was quite impressed with the latest challenge, which mentioned a few oldies, like myself, Ted Bates, bless him, Mick Channon, Matt Le Tissier, Glenn Cockerill and Terry Paine. They had written in where we were all born, put in the number of miles between those places and St Mary’s and challenged cyclists to pick a name and cover the amount of miles next to his name and get people to sponsor them on the mileage, to be all put into the charity.

They haven’t got to be on the motorways cycling from, for instance, my place of birth Gateshead, around 320 miles, or Ted, whose birthplace was in Norfolk. But they can pick a name and do the miles, even as Franny Benali did once for one of his charity cycles, on an exercise bike in the garden. If, for instance, there was a real bravado type who was happy to try and do the total 760 miles, that would be fantastic. As ever, the Foundation will ensure all the money would go to some fantastic charity in our area, which of course reminds everybody how much the football club is part of the community.

More information on how to take part is available here.

Also, next week I will be doing my bit as part of the Leon Crouch Memorial Trophy. Leon did a terrific job in the short time he was a director here, with Pat Trant and others.

Leon will never be forgotten for paying out of his own pocket for that lovely statue outside the ground of Ted, bearing in mind the first one was embarrassing and had to be replaced. Leon was a true supporter and in his memory, the family have hired St Mary’s for three hours on June 2, to raise funds for the hospice in Lymington, which Leon sadly was in when he passed away. But in years previous to that, he had raised and contributed himself much, much money to keep it going.

The afternoon is about youngsters, with a youth football tournament taking place. And they have got people like myself, Tony Pulis and a lot of other ex-players to coach these sides on the pitch. It will be a good afternoon for supporters to get back in to St Mary’s, see their own youngsters and other people’s working hard and fulfilling a dream probably to be on the pitch the first team play on normally and it’s all of course for a good cause. Full marks to the Crouch family for starting this memorial to Leon.

For more information about how to attend or donate money, contact Chris Collinge by email ccollinge@winkworth.co.uk