Gao Jisheng is now very much Chairman Gao and he is now starting to implement his thoughts on running Saints and they have now announced the new board structure.
The changes seem to be more about evolution than revolution and that has to be a good thing.
The statement reads:
Majority shareholder Mr Jisheng Gao will now take the position of Chairman of the club and St Mary’s Football Group. Katharina Liebherr re-joins the St Mary’s Football Group board whilst Nelly Gao and Martin Semmens will also become members of the St Mary’s Football Group board and Vice-Chairs of the club board.
Martin Semmens has also been appointed as CEO of Southampton Football Club, and will lead the club on a day-to-day basis.
The management team and operations remain unchanged and the club is looking forward with new focus and determination to a successful season.
So it seems Gao is now starting to take a more hands on role at the club and putting in place the structure that he feels will best serve the purpose.
The role as Chairman was for a long period blurred at Saints in that both Rupert Lowe and Nicola Cortese were both Chairman & CEO.
The role of Chairman is not a full time position, he is usually the man who links between the shareholders/owners and those running the club on a day to day basis, it seems that Gao is now going to fulfill that role and although he won't be at the club full time he will relay his instructions directly with Martin Semmens implementing the running of the club.
It is good to see that Katharina Liebherr is not just walking away but will still be on the football group board, there are those who have been derogatory to her on social media, but the truth is that she stayed true to her fathers ideals and what he wanted for the club when back in 2013/14 it would have been easy to have cut her losses and run and perhaps see the club run into financial difficulty, but she put money in to complete the over budget training ground and stabilised the club and in this respect deserves as much gratitude as Saints fans showed her father.
So far she has never done us any wrong and she is now showing that she wants to help the club build on her Father's legacy.
Also the fact that Gao's own daughter Nellie is joining the board is positive, that shows that the Gao family are getting hands on and getting involved, so far it has felt like they were sat back doing nothing, now it feels they are committing themselves to the club.
All in all this is a positive sign that Gao doesnt intend to just sit back but wants the club to succeed, why would he not want that ? if he wants a return on his investment then he knows that he needs the club to be in the Premier League, if it drops out then he could be waving goodbye to the value of his shareholding.
The thing that we as fans need to do now is judge Gao and his people on what they do going forward, not on what has happened in the past both before and after his arrival.
We don't know what the future holds, indeed every club that gets relegated is not necessarily poorly run, these things happen, but the indications are today that after having looked hard and long at the structure of the club Gao is now starting to run things his way.
None of us know what that way will be like yet, but one thing we have seen is that Gao is not impulsive, he hasn't promised us the earth, he seems to be calculated in the way he does business and does so based on making decisions that are well thought out.
I for one am glad to see that, we have to trust him and give him the chance, not only because he deserves the benefit of the doubt till he actually does something not in the best interests of the club, but because we have no other choice.
Time to make him feel welcome and support him !