The interview with Ralph Krueger with the Daily Echo has revealed how much more open Saints are as a club now and as a result more successful.

When Nicola Cortese ruled the roost at St Mary's there were those that excused his behaviour as that of a businessman and that to be successful you always had to be driven and ruthless, whilst Cortese had his success the fact was we were a divided club with employees scared to do their job and a high turnover of key executives in the business and this was not good.

But many chose to ignore this as long as Saints were successful on the field to a degree then anything could be excused of it, the reality was far from that and the poor infrastructure off the field as well as the behaviour of our ex CEO caused Katharina Liebherr to need to intervene.

A year later and much has changed corporate governance is in place and now key employees are being recruited and are staying, a structure is being put in place that does not rely on one man making all the decisions.

But it is more than that, the club is now a happier place to work and that means that the workforce be it on or off the field are able to do their jobs without distraction and interference and are therefore doing it to a far better level, ask any business consultant and he will tell you the key to a good company is the core values of it as happy staff do a better job.

Of course on the playing side it is a little different, Saints are not on a level playing field when it comes down to the recruitment and retention of players and are always going to struggle to compete against the so called big clubs for players be it on a financial level or chasing trophies.

But what is being put in place now is going to make that easier, it probably won't solve the problemm, but it will help it and we may keep or sign a player or two that we wouldnt have a couple of years ago.

Now with the right corporate governance in place we can make great strides and one of those strides is the new communication between club and supporters.

Of course there are many things that any business cannot reveal, a football club has to play its cards close to its chest, but the Ralph Krueger interview has shown that those now running the club know the value of the supporters and that if everything connected with the club is kicking in the right direction then it makes things easier.

The Premier League riches mean that the supporters money is less valuable to a clubs income than it used to be, but it is still key, it is the difference between being able to perhaps make a key signing or being able to afford it, it was revealed earlier in the season that Arsenal's matchday income alone was worth more than £1 million pounds per game than that of their rivals Tottenham Hotspur, so that perhaps tells you why Spurs want to build a big new ground and maximise their opportunities to make money to try and bridge that gap.

Saints are no different, a few years back when this site remarked about the lack of corporate income, some sneered, but then we had a CEO in charge who had no long term plan, it all relied on going to the Liebherrs for money, now as Krueger reveals it is different, Katharina Liebherr has backed the club financially, but ultimately it has to generate its own income and become self sufficient.

That is good and the fact that Ralph Krueger is pointing it out to the supporters and indicating how the club intends to move forward is good as well, but there is a hidden message, all of their plans mean nothing without the backing of the supporters.

Yes the club have to get some things right like pricing, but if they get it right then the fans have to respond, buy tickets and fill the stadium to a degree that we can contemplate expansion and then fill that extra capacity thus bringing in extra income.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and as our near neighbours Portsmouth found out, you have to do more than just shout continuously to the World that you are a sleeping giant and that once you get into the big time there won't be an empty seat in the house, Pompey are now paying the price for decades of mis management, the support just isnt there any more because generations have been alienated from the club.

Saints have the opposite, the support is there and it has to be unified and utilised, but all the great plans of Ralph Krueger and Katharina Liebherr will come to nothing unless we back them.

It was exciting talk from our Chairman and good to hear, the last year has been a learning curve for many within the club, but they are clearly taking advice and adapting and you feel that the club is far different from a year ago when Cortese left and indeed is far different and more experienced than the one that faced a crisis in May with manager and key players leaving, back then there was a feeling that some were out of their depth, that was probably true in some respect, but they learnt to swim quickly and we seem to learn from our mistakes now rather than repeat them.

So refreshing words from Krueger, in football its always a rocky road whether you are Manchester United or Accrington Stanley, but now we no longer fear the path ahead, we look forward to climbing it.

Photo: Action Images

Butty101 added 09:48 - Feb 18 Wheres the proof that corporate governance has improved? Corporate boxs are still no nearer sold out for instance
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SaintNick added 10:02 - Feb 18 Corporate governance is not about selling boxes its about having the right line management in place, under Cortese we had a Chairman who was Cortese and his job was to manage the CEO responsible for running the club day to day who was ..... Cortese, effectively he was his own boss, his decisions were not accountable to anyone but himself. Now we have a Chairman in Ralph Krueger whose job is not full time but to oversee the CEO Gareth Rodgers whose job it is to run things full time, hence we have a system that is now accountable right up the line from the tea lady right up to Katharina Liebherr So there is the proof, perhaps you dont feel Corporate Governance is working, but it is certainly improved as it was non existent before with the Chairman and CEO being the same person and refusing to be accountable to the owner

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bstokesaint added 13:04 - Feb 18 Agreed totally Nick. In hindsight it was scary how much control NC had at Southampton. Markus may have been happy with this when he was alive, but Katharina is the one who's been left with the legacy and she's obviously no mug. She wasn't as comfortable with an egomaniac in charge and to be honest the appointment of Ralph K was a great decision. Both her and Ralph should be highly commended on what they've done this season. I'm sure the boxes will fill up over time and now we are going to be putting the SFC brand out there globally. This will enable us to build the foundations to start competing with the bigger sides off the pitch too.

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schatfield added 08:21 - Feb 19 our corporate governance is indeed much better, although we are still really low on our commercial marketing. The big clubs know how to exploit the US/Asia markets very well, and they make a ton via that route.
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