12 Mar 2014 09:23:11
Ralph Krueger, has agreed to succeed Nicola Cortese in a new boardroom structure at St Mary's that will also result in the appointment of Hans Hofstetter as a director. Krueger will be the new Chairman and is trying to get MoPo to sign a new contract to extend his stay at Saints.

1.) 12 Mar 2014
Once we have an appointed board, things should become clearer about the direction Saints will be taking, which is positive.

Just on a side note, did anyone see the Footballers Football show this week featuring Les Reed? I thought it was a great show, which highlighted the philosophy of the club and Saints Youth Policy. Very enlightening and well worth a watch

2.) 12 Mar 2014
I just don't see how Ralph Kruger appointment is a progressive step for us although if he try's to implement ice hockey rules osvaldo would slot right back in lol!

3.) 12 Mar 2014
It seems like we are trying to replace Cortese. Krueger is a strong, motivated and committed to helping on a day-to-day basis.
Krueger seems to be a very talented scout for Hockey so over time he will learn the field of football and it will also fit into place. He also was, at a point a sabermetriction, meaning he used stats to scout players which I think is good. The only problem is that he said he wanted to exploit the commercial side of Saints. Hope we don't turn into Cardiff

4.) 12 Mar 2014
Why would an ice hockey scout be good at either scouting football players (surely that's the manager and his team's responsibility) or developing commercial opportunities (like Woodward dies at Man Utd)?
Am I missing something?

5.) 12 Mar 2014
Don't like his views on playing an overseas game. Don't like the way he batted round the subject of lallana amd Shaw. Let's just get poch signed up amd finish the season strongly.

6.) 12 Mar 2014
Listening to his interview via the Saints Channel, I got the distinct impression that Saints push for Champions League is over.

As for exploiting the commercial side of Saints, we are well down the lists in Sponsorship earnings, so it's clear there's still a lot of work to do in those areas.

What is positive is that the board is in place, which will settle everyone down, and while Krugger's history is within the field of Ice Hockey, his is an executive role - I seriously doubt he'll be out scouting players. He will however be used to doing deals with players, and bringing in additional revenue streams.

7.) 12 Mar 2014
The first words to come out of kruegers lips indicate selling Shaw and Lallana. At least that's my interpretation of this interview segment.

Krueger also confirmed he is looking at developing St Mary's, although clammed up somewhat when asked about keeping key talent like academy products Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana.

"We will do everything possible to retain the players as long as possible but it is too early in the process to specify what that means, " he said.

"Everybody has to know that we will work within our means. We will have a healthy organisation with no shortcuts.

"We are going to earn every single thing we do here and we're going to have to pay a price for that. "

8.) 12 Mar 2014
I'm reserving judgement on this guy for a while longer. Whilst he's made the right impression that he's a good character we haven't really any indication on his actual policies - we don't know his long term plan, be this as in ambitions or in players/managers. On that front we'll have to measure via actions or if he does come out and state explicitly where we are aiming for or if a player/manager is staying or going.

On the other hand I think he has shown his hand in terms of commercial growth. As I've seen a few people point out already he plans to exploit commercial growth - rest assured this means nothing on players their potential sale does not come under that umbrella. He spoke about the growth of Football in America and Canada and of playing overseas games. I think his commercial ambitions are to expand Southampton in the North American sphere, which is a fairly untapped resource as of yet. How he'll do this is yet to be stated, but having stated his intent to listen to the fans I don't think he's the kind to 'do a Cardiff' or a Hull or alike. It'd be more likely to be advertisement, partnership or sponsorship deals and possibly trying to secure North American players for Saints, in youth or senior, which could be a big positive.

Much of this is just educated guesswork, but I'm going to wait before deciding whether or not this guy is any good - the Summer transfer window in particular will be indicative, who stays and who goes and who is possibly brought in. I hope he shows a similar ambition to Cortese, for all his faults his hopes for this club could not be.

9.) 13 Mar 2014
My interpretation of what RK was saying in relation to player retention is, effectively, that Saints will keep players to the extent that it can afford to. That means primarily two things:
1) Players will be kept to the extent the Club can satisfy wage demands, but the Club will not be buckling to pressure from star players and paying crazy amounts; and
2) There may come a time when an offer is, indeed, 'too good to refuse'. In relation to Shaw and Lallana, if we were to get an astronomical offer for either of them, we would sell.

10.) 13 Mar 2014
I'm sorry but what indicates "Living within our means" more than keeping the top talent we already have rather than selling and having to spend to replace them? We are looking to be a commercial success and nothing would boost shirt sales and the profits we take than building ourselves up to being a European club.

11.) 14 Mar 2014
Agree entirely with the above post.

12.) 14 Mar 2014
Our chase for champions league place is over! Extraordinary, we have had a remarkable season but never (only in my own fantasy football world ) did I think that we would qualify for the CL.

Given the events of the past few days it would not be mad to assume that there is a long term strategy being put in place (in fact much of it is already in place the academy for example).

We will build slowly and from within using the Liebherr model and if our owner follows her family's model there will be little or no financial risks taken with the club. Excellent news all-round, I think next season we will be the top half again and I hope that we finish higher than we will season but it will not be easy.

Look at Man City, look at the money spent, add up the trophy count. patience will be needed.