You don't need me to tell you that the season ahead is one of the most vital in our history. In the final year of parachute payments and with the financial gap between Premiership and Championship growing ever wider with the new Sky TV deal, Saints simply have to go up to avoid potentially setting us back years.
With the new board and an excellent management team in place, Saints have all the backroom ingredients to succeed, but the squad is still short of the targeted numbers and quality. The new board have talked of getting in 5-6 additional players, with Bradley Wright-Phillips the first of them.
However, new Chief Executive has thrown that into doubt with an alarming comment to the Guardian:
"Our supporters had been led to believe that there was a war chest with funds set aside to acquire players. I can only conclude that the comments were a figure of speech. We have spoken to George Burley and he didn't know what the budget was - he had no idea. It became clear there was none. The only funds set aside were for the running of the club."
While it was one of Lowe's common tactics not to reveal the extent of transfer funds in order not to inflate prices for player bids, this is a worrying comment. If we take it at face value, then the club's incoming transfer activity is effectively over without additional investment into the club.
The sales of Smith and Folly will have raised around half a million, but this is still short of the kind of money required to find the additional 3-4 quality signings the squad needs to sustain a push for automatic promotion.
However, all is not lost. New board members Wilde and Trant have promised to invest additional funds into the club and Saints are still in the hunt for Skacel and Webster from Hearts among others, so clearly there is some loose change in the kitty. There is also still talk of the supposed 10 new investors interested in putting money into Saints, although it is best to get too excited about this until it actually happens.
Saints are on a real push to get season tickets sold with a promise to provide free season tickets for under 12s if the club reaches 13,000 tickets sold by 9 August, with sales hovering around the 10,000 mark at present.
For those who were refusing to renew their season tickets until Lowe's departure, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. The club needs the revenue more than ever in this vital season.