I remember, a few years ago, listening to a Southampton fan on the radio. He had phoned up to talk about the goals of the club for the coming year. The hosts spoke of pushing for a Europa League place, building on a productive season the year prior.
The fan agreed, to an extent. But he said something rather poignant in contingency to that. He said that he wanted Southampton to do as well as they possibly could without losing any of their players.
In other words, he wanted them to finish in the highest possible position that would not attract the big clubs to poaching their best players.