Saints supporters have pointed the finger of blame at the club's relegation towards Sports Republic, but it is clear that the owners feel that having initially left the club's running to it's board, it is now time to step in.
Sport Republic stated from the off that they had bought the club because of it's foundations and were going to evolve them rather than take the path of revolution, however after the relegation to the Championship it is clear the owners themselves feel that they have been let down by those who were running the club.
They have announced that CEO Martin Semmens has stepped down and that they will take "full operational control" with immediate effect.
They also said that
"Henrik Kraft will continue as chairman and will act as interim CEO pending the appointment of a new CEO and that Dragan Å olak has been appointed Chairman of Sport Republic and will play an active role in overseeing the activities of the Group and supporting the leadership of the club.
"Rasmus Ankersen will continue as CEO of Sport Republic, overseeing football strategy. Henrik Kraft will continue as the Chairman of the club and will act as Interim CEO pending the appointment of a new CEO.
The statement continued
"In addition, we are strengthening our Board of Directors with the appointment of Andy Young as our first independent Director. Andy was previously the Chief Financial Officer of City Football Group, the private owner and operator of some of the world’s top football clubs. Andy will chair our Audit Committee and brings huge experience of operating at the highest level of the football industry.
"The new composition of the Board of Directors of St Mary’s Football Group and Southampton FC is as follows:
Henrik Kraft (Chairman of the Board)
Rasmus Ankersen
Dragan Å olak
Rolf Bögli (Appointed by minority shareholder Katharina Liebherr.)
Toby Steele (Will serve until his departure later in the year.)
Andy Young
"These are the first of many changes that we will be making to ensure the success of the club. Our incoming Director of Football, Jason Wilcox, will lead a review of the football department and we will announce the club’s leadership team for next season in the coming weeks.
"By taking these steps now, we are laying the groundwork for our goal of returning Southampton FC to the Premier League as soon as possible.
"We take this opportunity to reiterate our unwavering commitment to Southampton FC and to thank the club’s fans for their dedicated support.
Clearly Sport Republic having entrusted the running of the club to the old guard, are not happy with the result and will now start to run things their way.
The last year has seen a lack of direction and leadership in the day to day running of the club, something that Sports Republic had left to Semmens and his previous board.
Some things were not the fault of the club, such as the appointment of Joe Shields as head of recruitment only to see him poached by Chelsea within a few months.
Others have to be laid at the feet of Sports Republic who although not directly involved on a day to day basis surely saw what was going on.
The interesting thing now will be whether the talks with Russell Martin were instigated by Martin Semmens or Sports Republic, It could be either, however I would be surprised if this shake up has come out of the blue for Martin Semmens and if he was indeed the man leading the negotiations he would have surely been reined in by the owners, so my bet is that Martin is Sport Republic's choice
Whichever way you look at it this is positive news, it shows that the owners are not sitting back but have taken the bull by the horns before the season is finished.
They are going to do things their way and now they have shown that they are willing to back their own convictions.
The appointment of Andy Young is interesting. he was previously the Chief Financial Officer of City Football Group who own Manchester City, New York City FC and a host of other club's and football interests around the World.
Given that it could be said that Sport Republic's aim is to mirror City Football Group in many respects, getting so high a profile man on board from CFG, clearly shows that they mean business.