All of Southampton's pre-season fixtures are done and dusted now, with the Saints' return to competitive action growing closer by the day.
Indeed, this coming weekend sees Tonda Eckert's men travel to Colchester United in the opening round of the EFL Cup, hoping to start their competitive string of fixtures off with a win, before getting stuck into the bread and butter of the Championship, once more.
The mood in Eckert's camp at the moment is one of sky-high confidence, with Flynn Downes even stating that he believes that the South Coast giants can win the title, come the end of the draining 46-game marathon.
This would be an insanely impressive feat if achieved, as Southampton enter the brand-new season with a four point deduction, after the club were embroiled in the Spygate controversy.
Strangely, the Saints have been here before in recent memory when tackling a points deduction, all while wanting to be near the top of their respective EFL division...
The Saints team Eckert will take inspiration from
The 2008-09 season was a disaster on the South Coast.
The Saints would succumb to a crushing relegation come the end of the long campaign, with a 23rd place finish greeting the depressed troops, despite David McGoldrick putting away 14 goals in all competitions.
To make matters worse, due to the club entering adminstration, they had to enter into the new League One season with a ten point deduction next to their name, but that didn't stop them from taking the division by storm as an entertaining unit.
Alan Pardew would steer the rejuvenated Saints to 23 wins from 46 League One games, as the likes of Rickie Lambert scored goals by the bucket load week in week out.
Unfortunately, despite amassing such a hefty tally of wins, they would miss out on the top six picture by seven points, but they still managed to lift the EFL Trophy to show they were a club rising from the ashes.
It would be the following season when promotion was triumphantly won, with Lambert bagging 21 goals in third-tier action alone, as automatic promotion was sealed.
Eckert will be taking plenty of inspiration from this rocky, yet heartening patch of Southampton's recent history, as he will want his own dented group to bounce back from adversity, to be back in and around the promotion places.
Winning promotion shouldn't be out of their reach
Amazingly, if Eckert and Co. were to finish in seventh spot next campaign, they would qualify for the playoffs.
Next season, in a division that is already hectic and fast-paced, all the teams that finish between third and eighth will qualify for the expanded playoff format, which should make it easier for a team, who have been dished a points penalty, to rise the league.
With Eckert also having the luxury of being able to call upon the trusty players who got his exciting Southampton side into the playoffs last season in Cyle Larin and Daniel Peretz, this unsettling points sanction should comfortably become a thing of the past, if an opening day win against Watford is secured, and then the points keep coming in August.
There is a lot to be eager about heading into the coming season from a Saints perspective, even as Spygate still looms large, with an obvious appetite present to finally return to the Premier League.
Southampton eventually got back to the top-flight after falling all the way down to League One, so it can done in the here and now, for sure.
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