Ronald Koeman has spent his last week before taking over at St Mary's making sure that he won't be misunderstood.
When Koeman's predecessor Mauricio Pochettino took over the helm at Saints he used an interpreter, initially this was to be expected after all Pochettino was an Argentinian who had spent most of his footballing career in Spain, but it soon became clear that rather than being a neccessity, the use of the interpreter was some sort of game that Pochettino seemed to be playing with the press.
For most of last season it was clear that Pochettino could communicate in English he was just choosing not too, that soon started to grate with some, especially with the press where even the most simple question and answer in a press conference took twice as long because of the need to interpret, especially frustrating when it was clear that Pochettino clearly understood the question and was capable of giving an answer in English.
Some saw it as funny, but many started to see it as a little disrespectful, not only to the press but to the Saints fans, as popular as Pochettino was amongst Saints supporters as a manager, there was that air of aloofness that never saw him become part of the community as previous Saints managers over the years had become.
Whether this was some sort of game concocted by Pochettino and/or Cortese perhaps we will never find out, what we do know though is that suddenly Pochettino can speak English in Spurs press conferences, perhaps he knows that the media who cover Spurs will be a lot less understanding of his little nuances than the South Coast media.
Ronald Koeman however is taking a different approach and is taking an intensive refresher course of his English to ensure he can communicate in the language prior to his official start at St Mary's.
He clearly see's the need to be seen by Saints supporters as part of the community rather than just a manager who is here for one reason, Koeman knows what makes supporters tick and after the trauma of the past six months he knows that if we are to continue moving forwards we need everyone kicking in the same direction, supporters, club staff, the media, all need to be on the same hymn sheet.
o not for Koeman sham press conferences with painstakingly dull monotone answers from an interpreter, he wants to make sure that he gets his message across directly and that can only be good.