Jeremy Wilson of the Telegraph is a well respected Sports Journalist and he has written an article this weekend that every Saints fan should read.
The inside story of Southampton's brilliant start to the Premier League season under Ronald Koeman
This is a very good article which is fairly accurate although I think it has been done with lets say "co operation" from the club, Wilson is a former Daily Echo sportswriter and has written a book on Saints.
Having cleared up the fact that Wilson is close to the club in some respects, it should also be noted he is a very respected journalist and not one who would compromise his own integrity for a free holiday to watch pre season training, if he has written it, it means it is well researched and he is happy with the facts.
It is balanced in that it does confirm that Cortese did some very good things, I have always agreed with that, sadly though as Wilson confirms here , he did many other things that interfered with the best way of doing things and ultimately became too embroiled in petty things regarding football rather than running the club properly in all areas.
In essence he thought he was bigger than the club and although not gone into too much detail here, he spent too much time trying to flex his muscle and show he was the boss, whether it be introducing petty car parking charges or his perceived persecution of certain ex players by supporters.
What is clear is that Katharina Liebherr became aware of these problems and decided she had to deal with them, one easy option might have been just to sell up, but that was not the path she took and the club is all the better for it.
Les Reed comes out of this well, in many respects he should, in that he has done a lot of things behind the scenes regarding sports science, identifying players etc, Cortese took much of the credit for this, but being realistic it was Reed who knew about such matters not Cortese.
Reed however is not good at some things and people management etc is one of them, that is touched on with regards communication with Lallana etc, for a while back in May & June Reed was left holding the fort and he wasn't up to that task, his strengths lie elsewhere.
What it does confirm though is that Saints were being targeted by certain clubs, some of whome behaved better than others and that Pochettino was far from honest in what he was telling the club, we are probably a better club without him and Cortese as well for that matter, both of whom were more concerned with their own interests rather than Southampton FC.
Things will change in football, they always do, but as I said in the summer, its not about what has happened, its about what happens next and Saints have been through a traumatic period in which many Saints supporters did not give those in charge of the club the leeway they deserved to keep it on track, preferring to believe the press reports being planted by various suspects we can only guess at, with the aim of de stabilising the club.
Now we have a balanced view, of course it may have a hint of PR about it, but as i say Jeremy Wilson is a respected journalist with integrity, he has not got that reputation by being the lacky of football club managers and Chairman.
Southampton Football Club has been vidicated for its behaviour in a very difficult summer, from a personal perspective rarely have I ever seen a manager at this club with as little respect for it or honesty towards it than Mauricio Pochettino and my thoughts of the path that Nicola Cortese was taking us down are well documented.
When I talk about Cortese there are some who will accuse me of bias, after all they will say, he took your season ticket away, that I cannot deny, but those who sang his names at matches and feted him as the greatest Chairman in the clubs history would do well to consider why on earth a man earning nearly £2 million a year and with his hands full running a football club would want to waste valuable time persecuting a humble supporter or an ex player for that matter.
Perhaps Katharina Liebherr saw these things and realised that leadership comes from the top, if she wanted a club that mirrored her late father's Moral & Ethical credo in his sadly short life, then Nicola Cortese was not the man for that, thank you Katharina Liebherr for taking back our club, there will be rocky times ahead im sure, every football club has them but we are in far better shape to tackle them now as a club and we know that the people running in will do what is best for the club and not just self serve their own interests.