Ralph Krueger's interview with Radio Solent last night was very much a statement of two halves, one which was full of intent and the second is yet to come.
Last night Ralph Krueger gave an interview to Adam Blackmore of BBC Radio Solent, in that interview he tackled some very difficult questions and did not shirk them, in the main he said just what Saints supporters wanted to hear, they wanted to hear that the club was still focused and still ambition and that Katharina Liebherr inteded to invest in the club rather than asset strip before a sale, Krueger said all that they wanted to hear, but his answers signalled that there will still be stormy waters ahead.
One interesting point was when he accused players of wanting to take a short cut to Champions League football" here he alluded to the ambitions of the former CEO and gave an opinion that there was no shortcut to the Champions League, that the no club let alone Saints could do that, that there was a lot of hard work and progress needed to be step by step and that the club now saw the Europa League as being the next step in a natural progression and that they had a focused plan going forward to achieve that.
He also hinted that rebuilding was necessary, referring back to his comments he said.
"We did not put any players up for sale," he added. "To get the best deal we needed to stay silent. It was not in our style to leak things out."
He accused the departed players of wanting to take a "shortcut to Champions League football"
"Those players were wanting to have it immediately," he said. "Once you end up with a group with that type of attitude you need to do what is best for the club. We did not make any decision on financial grounds."
In the sale of the players he indicated that Saints were running the Club along a continental "Soccernomics" basis stating that in the case of the players already sold that in each case Saints had received a price in excess of what they considered the "Premium" level, those who have studied the way that Soccernomics works will understand that the concept is that you know a players worth and that when you receive an offer in excess of that, you sell and reinvest, this is the structure that Liverpool have adopted over the past few years.
Of course these were all fine words from Ralph and he will know more than anyone that words do not count, it is all about actions and there can be no doubt that Saints have been found wanting in certain areas and these need to be addressed and that leads us to the second part of his statement, actions !
Now having made the bold statements about Schneiderlin and Rodriguez not being sold and stated that there will be several new signings in along with talk of how the squad will need to be rebuilt, these words now have to be put into actions, many Saints fans have felt let down, we have sold before replacements are in place and that is very dodgy ground to be on, so the next few weeks are crucial.
But we Saints fans have to give Katharina Liebherr and Ralph Krueger the chance to show their intentions are good, firstly for the reason we have no other choice but mainly for the fact that they have a big job to do and we have to trust them to get it right in the long term, reading social media sites over the past week you would have thought that the last five years have been a smooth path without any rocky periods, some forget that if we had judged Nicola Cortese after a year in charge he would have been long gone.
In his first season despite spending more than the rest of the league put together we failed to get promoted and his second season was no less rocky with a poor start, managerial upheaval and a season of playing catch up only gaining automatic promotion virtually on the finishing line.
Our first season back in the Premier was one of upheaval and mainly a fight against relegation, but some have short memories.
This should tell us that we need to give our new board the time to make the changes needed especially with the playing side of things, Cortese didnt get it right first time, so we have to get off their backs and give them that chance to prove their intentions are true.
On the plus side we have a great manager in Koeman and Krueger confirmed that the Dutchman had full input into the transfer dealings, something that was never the case under the previous CEO and this is something that Koeman does well as we can see from his time at Feyenoord.
There is no reason why the following season should not be as exciting as the last one, Krueger spoke of realistic ambitions and that means looking for another top 10 finish and as he confirmed looking to qualify for Europe perhaps through one of the domestic cups.
If we can look to achieve that then this is truly progress, the fact is that even if nothing changed then it would have been very difficult to progress beyond what we acheived last season and Pochettino was on record that he was not interested in Europa League qualification as he felt that it would be bad for the club, for him and Cortese it was Champions League or bust, so given the impossibility of the former, just what did we have to look forward too.
Now we have focused and achievable aims, last season Hull finished 16th we finished 8th but they had two appearances at Wembley and now look forward to a European campaign, I would ague who had the most exciting season last year, us or them ?
So fine words from Ralph and ones we needed to hear, but that is only the first part, now we need to see those words put into actions and make no mistake Ralph and his board need to realise the mistakes they have made and what they need to do going forward to put them right, and we as fans need to support the club rather than deride it at every opportunity as some seem to be revelling in doing so now.
I want to see the club continue its path forward the way to do that is to support it rather than whinge about wasting money on season tickets, supporting a football club is for life not just for a good season or at least that is the way it used to be.