With a week gone since the final game of the Premier League season Saints supporters are getting a little restless that there is no news on the managerial front.
With most Saints fans wanting Mark Hughes to get the job on a full time basis and indeed both Hughes and the club making the right noises about the job being the right fit, it is a little disconcerting that there has been no news out of the club.
A week has now gone since the final home game against Manchester City and it could be said that it is now almost a fortnight since Saints Premier League future was all but confirmed after the win at Swansea.
Saints had a good opportunity to harness that feel good factor from last Sunday with a positive announcement regarding the manager, yet instead they put out season ticket renewal detail and dressed that up with the fact that prices would be frozen.
That was not conducive to keeping the feel good factor going and this is the crux of the matter, the PR from the club is absolutely awful, it lurches from gaffe to gaffe.
Whilst I appreciate that Ralph Krueger giving a big interview is the club's attempt at positive spin, the fact is it isn't, the club cannot seem to accept the mood amongst a sizeable chunk of the supporter base, they do not want words they want actions.
Krueger is an honest man and one that isn't getting the credit for his work over the last four years at the club, but in many respects he is too honest and his words are twisted.
This is leading to the fans taking the opinion that the club does not care for them, the season ticket renewal was seen as a kick in the teeth and yet another case of taking the fans for granted.
No one seems to have sat down in the St Mary's boardroom and taken stock of the disillusionment in the fan base, whilst I would agree that not everything that the fans are moaning about has any real substance, the club seem incapable of recognising that they have a problem and are blundering on with no thought for consequence.
This last week is a real instance of that, the season ticket prices were announced with indecent haste and the fact that prices were merely frozen said to the fans that their support was being taken for granted, after the debacle that was this season, the club relly needed to do something.
I am not PR Professional, but it was a simple solution to harness the relief and ecstasy of the final day, firstly do not announce the season tickets till the manager is appointed, Mark Hughes should have been announced swiftly and then a day later harness the positive vibes from that by putting out the season ticket details with the sweetener of a discount on renewals.
Simple stuff but you create a positive atmosphere around the club, you make the fans feel that they matter.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg, Saints are not the only club to have PR disasters with regard to their fans, but that does not make it right and to be blunt although the words coming out of Kruegers mouth say the right things, the actions of the last week do not back those words up and that does not instil confidence in the supporters that lessons have been learn't and that next season will be better than the last.
Personally I have always said that the problems at the club are not as deep as many supporters believe, but I have also said on many occasions that life is all about perceptions and here the club's poor PR is giving the fans the wrong perception and that means the discontent in the fan base is growing.
It is likely that Mark Hughes will be appointed in the next few days, but it is too late, the club have already diluted the feel good factor that would have brought, I would hope that Ralph Krueger is good to his word, but he needs to look at who is advising him on what to tell the fans, he needs someone who knows what the fans gripes are and how they can be tackled and he needs to tackle them.
Actions always speak louder than words, the last four years have seen meltdown in each season, the club has always come through due to being well run and structured with a plan, it has let it's actions speak, but actions alone are sometimes not enough and there are not enough of either actions or words at present.