So the captain has finally spoken, and every word landed perfectly. Good.
Jack Stephens broke his silence this week, his first public word since the play-off expulsion. In a rallying cry he said the squad is "confident that we can achieve what we deserved to achieve last year."
That is the tone a group battered by Spygate badly needed to hear.
The message is spot on
Stephens did not dodge the summer's cloud. He called the Spygate fallout "a really difficult situation" and admitted he "didn't have many answers myself at the time."
What came next was pure captain. He praised the squad, the staff and owner Dragan Solak, whose public backing Stephens said let fans "see what sort of guy he is."
He is clear-eyed about the road, too. Southampton open on minus four points, and Stephens expects away crowds to cast his side as "the villains."
"We have to start well," he said. He wants the late surge from last season to carry over.
As a rallying cry, it lands. One friendly remains, then League Two Colchester in the Carabao Cup, before Sky's cameras pick the Watford opener precisely because of how last season ended.
The one thing to fix is his own game
Here's the thing, though. A rallying cry does not win a header or cut out a through-ball.
That is where the captain has to answer.
Put plainly, the fix is Stephens the defender. He has to be sharp and settled at centre-back from minute one, not a passenger while others carry the load.
Cast your mind back to last August. Southampton stumbled out of the blocks, and a chunk of the fanbase turned the captain into the scapegoat.
The away trip to Blackburn was where that noise peaked. It was a grim afternoon at Ewood Park, and fair or not, Stephens wore plenty of it.
He split fan opinion long before this. Relegation from the Premier League saw the whole squad vilified, save perhaps Mateus Fernandes.
Stephens bore the brunt of the Saints fans' fury in pre-season under Will Still, and he made his frustration with the Northam End known as he cupped his ears and ran into the corner to celebrate with the fans.
The captain is a better footballer than he backs himself to be, yet he can get in his own head when the mood sours.
So the answer is not another interview with the local press. Cut out the errors, win his duels, and any lingering doubts will soon disappear.
A settled, sharp Stephens is worth more than any rallying cry. A good run of form is the one thing that he cannot talk his way to.
Get the simple things right in the Watford opener on the 16th August, and the armband would feel a lot lighter.
Fail at Vicarage Road, and those old concerns may start to come flooding back.
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