Those who hoped for a high profile experienced appointment to the CEO position will be disapointed, but truth is this is entirely in line with the Liebherr philospophy.

Saints have made the interim appointment of Gareth Rogers permanent and he is now the official permanent CEO of Southampton Football Club.

When Rogers was appointed in the position temporary it was assumed that perhaps Saints had a candidate who had a notice period, however that seems to now be a false trail and the former Chief Financial Officer is now the man who going forward will be responsible for the day to day running of the club.

Of course this will spark gossip about the ambitions under Katharina Liebherr for the club, but in actual fact this appointment is entirely in line with the family's philosophy with regard to business, they do not go for flamboyancy or big names, they go for those who work quietly behind the scenes rather than seeking the limelight or as in the last CEO found the limelight due to controversial decisions.

But since she has come to the fore Katharina has revamped the corporate governance behind the club, unlike under Cortese where he was the sole decision maker and all and everything was down to him, a policy that is not good in any big company, Rogers is very much a part of a bigger picture that will see Katharina Liebherr at the top, Ralph Krueger ther eot liase between her and Gareth Rogers and indeed help and councel the new CEO as every good hairman should do.

Krueger speaking on the club's official site said

“It gives me great pleasure to announce, on behalf of the Board, that Gareth has been appointed as our new Chief Executive Officer.

“Gareth has done an excellent job leading our operation through a challenging and transitional period over the past two months. In that time he has proved himself to be decisive, open to innovation and able to inspire others to share his great values.

“His appointment is another important step forward for our leadership team as we continue to grow this great Club.”

In response the new CEO made this statement

“It is a real privilege and an honour to be confirmed as Chief Executive Officer of Southampton Football Club.

“It is clear from every facet of the Club that a real sense of potential exists and we intend to continue to strive in order to reach this. Whilst there is significant work ahead of us, I cannot speak highly enough of our fantastic staff who I know, having worked with them for the past three years, are pulling in the same direction to ensure that the Club can continue to better itself.

“Consequently, I look forward and am excited by the challenge of helping the Club to grow, both on and off the pitch, as we strive for long-term success.”

Some fine words from both men and indeed Krueger has intimated that words need to be backed up by actions before they can be anything else, but that aside both are saying the right things.

In football clubs, those with continuity are those that succeed and in appointing Rogers we do have continuity in that he has been here since 2011, he knows the staff and more importantly he knows the issues that have been within the club during Cortese's tenancy, by appointing him its a clear statement that Katharina Liebherr is looking to stabilise the ship and before we do anything she needs to rebuild the staff morale and make it a happy place to work again, she knows that in any company you get the best results from happy employee's, the last few years have seen massive staff turnover, especially in key positions, this turnover has seen our commercial income shrink at a time when it should have been increasing massively.

So hopefully and i say hopefully as although I am impressed by the appointments the proof of the pudding will still be in the eating, this is another step forward, for some it wont be well recieved as over the past year or so they have been taken in by brash statements of Champions league football etc, but in the main building a football club has to be done on solid foundations, that wasnt the case when we had a CEO who clearly was not in sync with the person who owned the club, now we have the proper structure in place.

Photo: Action Images

ItchenNorth added 13:19 - Mar 25 Time will tell if we will be singing their names like Cortese's was or singing it like we did for Lowe !
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Whatsforpud added 18:35 - Mar 26 The main point is that this new administration is a board of directors making democratic decisions, as opposed to what became a dictatorship under Cortese. However, if the Chief Executive Officer is dealing with the day-to-day running of the club, and the Chairman is keeping more of a hands off overview of the whole thing, does the owner come into play at all, given that she is not selling the club. When you own something, and (now) take an active interest in it, it must be difficult not be treading on the toes of those you have entrusted to run the club.

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cheltenhamsaint added 22:08 - Mar 26 I agree with you Nick. In most industries the CEO is the public face but in a football business it is more important that they are not. I like the fact that he has been promoted from within, was the former CFO and formerly a senior manager at a financial institution before joining SFC His job will be to ensure that all the legal, accountancy and administrative duties of the club are adhered to. The Chairman is there to pull together all the senior management in a common purpose using his contacts to make the business successful to the wider world taking direction from the owner. The owner provides the financial stability and takes pleasure from seeing a business thrive, preferably within an agreed budget and, in the long term a financial reward from a profit making enterprise or by an sale of the business (I add this only as a business consideration and not our current owner is thinking this way at this point in time or has indicated this as a future intention)

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