The early part of the summer was a painful time to be a Saints fan with many screaming that Katharina Liebherr was interested only in asset stripping the club, now we know the truth.

As Mauricio Pochettino departed St Mary's and a host of players demanded to follow him out of the door, many Saints supporters vented their fury at Katharina Liebherr and her board, at best they were accusing them of incompetence, at worst that they were asset stripping.

All they could really do was let the supporters rant and quietly get on with the job of rebuilding, indeed in an interview Ralph Krueger said

“That’s our goal, by September 1st, that you can look me in the eyes and say ‘When I look at everything, and I take all the emotions out, this is actually a stronger squad, a deeper squad than we had last year.’”

Some did not want to believe him, they had bought into claims that the club had been about to challenge the big clubs for the Champions league places, they thought this was now gone.

Somewhere around 12 months ago many were filled with false hope, they wanted to believe that the Champions League was only a mere matter of signing a couple of players and doing things the "Southampton Way" they failed to notice that there were a lot of clubs with better foundations and spending more money who also had those ambitions, jumping from 14th to 4th would not be easy, Everton & Spurs struggled to jump from 6th to 4th, but some people did not seem to consider this.

The 8th place finish was great, but history doesnt show teams who finish in that position jumping forward, it usually shows them dropping back, mainly because they lose a player or two who got them there, Ok for Saints to lose so many was a rareity, but beating 8th place this coming season was going to be very hard without big investment, after all look how much Manchester United who finished one place ahead of us have spent.

Perhaps Mauricio Pochettino knew this and that is why he got out whilst his stock was high, he knew that if Saints were to get any higher than 8th then the squad needed significant investment and that was not going to be forthcoming.

Indeed would it have been any improvement, the core of the squad was there in place since the days of Alan Pardew, in fact before him in some cases, in both of the Premier League seasons, big money had been spent, but spent badly in the main, of the five players who left for big money, three had been at the club since before Cortese arrived and one had been signed by Alan Pardew leaving only Dejan Lovren as a recent arrival.

Any football club goes through periods of transition and now it was Saints turn, it did not need to be as traumatic as it was, it cannot be denied mistakes have been made in the boardroom, but now we stand on the day Ralph Krueger asked us to judge them on and it has to be said that Katharina Liebherr and her board have not lied to us nor let us down, they have kept good their promise to reinvest the money that has come in from transfers and we now have a squad that is bigger and stronger than before.

In my opinion we have a better manager, he has to be given a lot of credit for the signings made, yes Les Reed and his team have spent many months identifying these signings, but appointing Koeman was crucial, he had the reputation to convince these players to come to Saints and that we were not the sinking ship some would have you believe.

Saints now have the foundations to build on what we have achieved over the past few years, that is not just about the playing squad, it is also about building a commercial structure to bring in income to the club, this is vital, over the past two seasons are commercial income has been around £6 million, that sounds a lot until you realise that even the likes of Fulham or Stoke were earning £14 million and upwards and someone like Spurs a club we professed to be about to usurp were bringing in £70 million plus, if we couldnt compete with Stoke off the pitch how did we expect to compete with Spurs.

So the changes at St Mary's are more than just about the playing side its about building a structure that can stand up by itself, that has always been the Liebherr way, when Markus took over he did not promise us Champions League football, he talked of a five year plan to get us back in the Premier League and make us self sufficient, we were never going to be something he would put in the multi millions that say Roman Abramovich is at Chelsea.

So Katharina and Ralph have delivered what they promised, she has shown that Saints means more to her than the chance to asset strip and put money in the bank, those who accused her of doing that owe her a big apology and perhaps Markus one too.

Photo: Action Images

samspade10 added 10:57 - Sep 2 Brilliantly said, thank you.
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NorwegianSaint added 11:13 - Sep 2 I agree with just about all you have wrote but what really annoyed me (and I think other fans aswell) was the silence during difficult times. Ralph did say the fans would be kept informed but it was the silence... the deafening silence! But... although this silence hurt we have come out a stronger team. We will lose games we should win and win games we should (on paper) lose. Time will be needed to gel our players together, it took the last manager a year and Ronald seems to be starting very well with the Southampton way. Personally, I would love it... LOVE IT if we finished above Spuds (and Liverhampton) but I think it might be a season too soon. Our amazing journey continues... and we are in great hands

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BaselSaint added 11:14 - Sep 2 Yes!
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Horndeansaint added 11:16 - Sep 2 Indeed very well put Nick. I think there are a lot of fans out there who also owe Les Reed an apology. In the dark days of the mass exodus, he was subjected to some pretty rigorous character assassination but, along with the rest of the management, seem to have come up with the goods and a tidy profit as well. I too had said to many of my friends and my 2 sons to wait until 2nd September and then pass judgement, forget the tabloid press scare mongerers and doom merchants. I think we have already started to see what influence RK can have, I don't reckon we would have been anywhere near signing TA without his influence, same goes for GP and most likely the others as well.

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BaselSaint added 11:22 - Sep 2 Norwegian> I agree the silences were painful and worrying , but as much as I hate to say it Harry Bagpuss was on Talksport yesterday and he summed it up quite well when he said it was all basically a poker game. Give your intentions away to your competitors at your peril!
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BaselSaint added 11:26 - Sep 2 Sorry to twaddle on but... what was up with the Daily Mail during those dark times. A conspiracy theorist could get paranoid.... were they gunning for us or what..?
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Horndeansaint added 11:27 - Sep 2 Exactly what I mean by tabloid scare mongerers Basel, don't feed them.
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Saintsfaninoz added 11:30 - Sep 2 I'll admit that I was pessimistic after the exodus following the WC and had dark thoughts about the motivation behind the sales (i.e., whole sale clearance followed by a sale of the club), but Katharina, Kruger, and Reed have proven me wrong!! Kudos indeed. She really seems to have a feeling for her father's dream. We are certainly stronger financially, and now are also strong on the pitch. Eighth place will be a bit of a stretch, I think, but top half is a reasonable prediction. It will take time for the new additions to gel and adjust the the rigours of the PL, especially the greater emphasis on physical play, but we now seem to have both the personnel and coaching team in place to take that next step to the top 5 or 6.

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SaintNick added 11:35 - Sep 2 As I say i think mistakes were made by the board, but they got to a stage where whatever they said something popped out to bite them in the a***, usually one of our want away players demanding something. In the end all they could do was get on with the job and not say much
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Jesus_02 added 12:04 - Sep 2 While I agree with the majority of what you have said I find the concept of "false hope" so negative its nauseating. Do we really accept so readily that the idea of finishing in the top 6 is so unrealistic that only fools dare believe it to be possible? My personal expectations are modest this season. I can see us finishing about 12th. Ronald Koeman seems ok at the moment but it’s difficult to assess him as better than MoPo after 3 matches. Likewise with players although it looks like we have a bit more depth if a little less net quality in the first 11. Yes, I still believe that with no losses and a few additions we could have pushed on. I genuinely believe we would have had a start similar to Swansea’s. We certainly wouldnt have celebrated a narrow defeat by a very disjointed Liverpool side on opening day. What we have lost is continuity and I think Liverpool may demonstrate how instability derail ambitions. Hopefully we will go back to the policy of gradual improvement next season and keep the players together. It may be a “false hope” and i may be a fool, but I still hope we can challenge in this league rather than merely provide a platform for others to do so.

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hawthorn1 added 12:11 - Sep 2 Wonderfully written article Nick,could not have put it better myself,well done.
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halftimeorange added 12:21 - Sep 2 I can truthfully say I only believed the (few) comments made by KL and RK and have never been worried that money would not be reinvested. You have to take these people at face value. It is quite possible that another successful season will see the vultures circling this time next year but, if Koeman is also as good as his word and is here for the long haul, then maybe we won't experience a rush of wantaway players. I can't see where either Lallana or Lambert will fit in with what Liverpool now have, and the future with Shaw looks dubious for him. We sold at well over the going rate and I'll be astonished if we don't have a reasonable season. If things are not so good at Christmas I truly believe this board will invest again. No panic.

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WestSussexSaint added 12:51 - Sep 2 I dont think you can fully judge the success of this transfer window until well into the season and possibly not until next May. Although those players that have come in look promising we have yet to see some play and others have only had a handful of games. My view on success this season will be a mid table finish (8th - 12th) with a decent cup run and increased off pitch stability and revenue as Nick mentioned.

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 13:03 - Sep 2 Agree with most of the article but have to pick you up on two points: 1) The squad might be deeper but when it comes to the starting 11, the only position in which we are stronger is in goal. 2) Its too early to suggest that Koeman is a better manager than Pochettino. If the 2nd half at West Ham had been like the 2nd half of the WBA game then you wouldn't be saying that. I also have to point out that Mane might be a complete flop, Mayuka style. While we desperately needed someone with explosive pace and trickery, Mane's impressive scoring and assists record has come in a league where his team are head and shoulders above everyone else, there are some really poor teams in there and they regularly beat teams by 4, 5, 6 even 8 goals. The saving grace being he put in some good performances against stronger opposition in the Europa League, so there is hope. He will definitely give us something we lack in attack but whether we'll get an end product remains to be seen. On a positive note, Alderwiereld is a tremendous signing, just what we needed, and the 2nd half at West Ham was one of the most complete away performances I have seen from Saints. We absolutely played them off the park! Continue to play like that and we will easily finish in the top half which will be some achievement after the summer we've had.

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SanMarco added 13:20 - Sep 2 Jesus - is your nausea not caused by bitter disappointment as much as anything else? The people who ruined your optimism were those who couldn't wait to get out of the door as soon as they had a half decent season. I actually don't think that articles like this one are saying that we can never move onwards and upwards - they are just saying that it doesn't happen overnight and that things like commercial income and stability (neither of which NC was ever likely to give us) are very important (although of course rather boring). I live just five minutes walk from Tottenham's ground and the statistic about their commercial income is a key one. They do not actually have that much more support than us and have for many years only had 4000 more capacity than us but they are 'bigger' than us because of their commercial dealings and acumen at buying up land and property etc. Lots of the land around here is owned by Spurs, many of the shops pay rent to Spurs, including the Sainsburys I shop in. I know it is boring stuff but to make progress we need to operate like that. Our biggest brand is our Academy and we have to be ruthless in exploiting it. Spurs are adding 20,000 to their capacity in a couple of years time. We need to be expanding too. That takes more than words - it needs quiet but meaningful action.

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StRipper added 13:20 - Sep 2 I am disappointed in myself that I have voiced some doubts about Saints direction over the Summer. Usually I've been an advocate of it but I think many of us haven't wanted to be taken for fools. I feel like a fool now though and am 100% behind our club, our board and our manager (assuming they have sorted out the focus on the LED lighting) Our club is going places. And so what if the club have a period of quiet. And so what if they choose to release or sell players. Based on where Saints stand now, we can only be confident that the people leading our club probably do know better than us and have progress for it at the top of their agenda. Means I can get on and enjoy being a fan without unnecessarily worrying about the other stuff. Love that. Up the Saints!

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pintsizedsaint added 13:44 - Sep 2 Like I said a few weeks ago, I hope that those who came on here and fire off slurrs on LR, KL and RK (including the baseless 'fire sale' and 'asset stripping' allegations and calling those who were balanced 'happy clappers') have the good grace to admit they were wrong. The commercial income is the greatest challenge for Saints - get that right and we can start competing for a higher spot.

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IanRC added 13:51 - Sep 2 Good comment StRipper, a hard thing to admit but many should do so here and on other boards. Really impressed by the way that Morgan has knuckled down after initially letting off steam, fantastic performance from him on Saturday, even if he did miss a tackle that led to their goal.
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Jesus_02 added 13:52 - Sep 2 SanMarco: My nausea is really caused by the idea that anyone that thinks we can progress beyond mid-table obscurity and an occasional cup run is somehow deluded. For years we had a having a tiny stadium, we suffered particularly from Englands European ban and the introduction of all seater stadium. And personally I feel like we have developed a “small man” mentality. Spurs ARE a “bigger” club than us, and they do have an awful lot more fans (not just in terms of capacity). They have a worldwide fanbase, OK not in the same League as Man U or Arsenal, but they do have one. We don’t (sorry Norwegian saint you are a minority). While the rent that Sainsburys pay to Spurs is part of their income the largest part is sponsorship and merchandise. And those streams only increase with success. It’s hard not to come off as a NC Fan* but he did at least realise that success needed to come before any floating foreign fans would buy our kit. In Lallana, Lambert and Shaw we didn’t just sell players we sold sailable image rights and the face of FCUK! (that’s boring but true) Financially the current board recognised that we were sound, so his approach was not unsustainable. Also over the last 5 years we have never been so stable. I do appreciate and respect that Kat is the owner and she didn’t have the trust in Cortese that her dad did. She basically wanted to be involved. An attitude that should be lauded. I hope that the board think that it was a time for a clean sweep and a new longer term plan. I hope that involves keeping academy products and delivering Champions League football. I am sure that they aspire to success. So let’s start by accepting that it’s OK to believe too.

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BoondockSaint added 14:00 - Sep 2 Right now the only way we move up is not just winning but the teams above us have to fail. Cause for hope: One Trick MoPony's tactics have already been solved by most managers in the league, and just wait for Balotelli to work his locker room magic. Serious note: hopefully Kat is planning expansion for St. Mary's (she'll know where to get the best construction deals). Look at plans for other clubs: http://www.footballgroundguide.com/developments.htm A smart marketing plan including kid prices, give-away promotions, player appearances, etc. would help fill the seats and build for the future. Not to sound elitist, but Saints should be drawing fans from miles around-there's no competition.

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cheltenhamsaint added 14:01 - Sep 2 At the end of this unique, yet fascinating, transfer window some of us are older and wiser. Some of us are just older................and they will repeat their words and actions in the next transfer window, and the one after that, and the one.........
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SaintNick added 14:36 - Sep 2 Two points 1. I would say that we are stronger in other positions than goalkeeper now and in most of the other positions ie Clyne at right back or Schneiderlin in midfield its the same player as last season so no weaker. 2. Commercial income, we might have had the face of FCUK but we did nothing to cultivate any of that, our club shop played safe and we made no effort to cultivate local business's

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SanMarco added 16:06 - Sep 2 Jesus I respect what you say and you are right that I was just talking about one part of the commercial side - Spurs have a bigger worldwide 'brand' than us - but that could change. I certainly had no quarrel with the 'ambition' side of NC's strategy but feel that the way it all collapsed suggests that it needed to be hand-in-hand with a development strategy that made the club grow. The players went because we weren't a 'big' enough club to give them what they felt they deserved (and perhaps what NC himself made them fell they deserved). NC was great at building the 'vision' up but was not so good at the 'boring' things. I agree that the worldwide brand thing is important and I reckon our unique selling point on that is the Academy...

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SaintNick added 16:18 - Sep 2 Im not sure that the worldwide brand is so important, after all how many football clubs truly have a world wide brand not as many as you would think
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Zambucco added 16:37 - Sep 2 As you know Nick I've been the eternal optimist and the only time I was dismayed was when Chambers was sold, why? The most harrowing moments were reading the bilge spouted by so called 'supporters' The facts they supposedly knew about asset stripping and not the board were talentless and unprofessional, to put it mildly. I've said all along, in the long run this episode will be great for our Club, it has got us back to basics, to build firm foundations. From which our lofty dreams will be built on, yes we will be in Europe in the next few seasons. I will be bold enough (being the eternal optimist) that we will qualify this season, and why not? However it will be full of the usual highs and lows that come from supporting not just the Saints but any football club. COYR!

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