Saints supporters have pointed the finger of blame at the club's relegation towards Sports Republic, but it is clear that the owners feel that having initially left the club's running to it's board, it is now time to step in.

Sport Republic stated from the off that they had bought the club because of it's foundations and were going to evolve them rather than take the path of revolution, however after the relegation to the Championship it is clear the owners themselves feel that they have been let down by those who were running the club.

They have announced that CEO Martin Semmens has stepped down and that they will take "full operational control" with immediate effect.

They also said that

"Henrik Kraft will continue as chairman and will act as interim CEO pending the appointment of a new CEO and that Dragan Å olak has been appointed Chairman of Sport Republic and will play an active role in overseeing the activities of the Group and supporting the leadership of the club.

"Rasmus Ankersen will continue as CEO of Sport Republic, overseeing football strategy. Henrik Kraft will continue as the Chairman of the club and will act as Interim CEO pending the appointment of a new CEO.

The statement continued

"In addition, we are strengthening our Board of Directors with the appointment of Andy Young as our first independent Director. Andy was previously the Chief Financial Officer of City Football Group, the private owner and operator of some of the world’s top football clubs. Andy will chair our Audit Committee and brings huge experience of operating at the highest level of the football industry.

"The new composition of the Board of Directors of St Mary’s Football Group and Southampton FC is as follows:

Henrik Kraft (Chairman of the Board)
Rasmus Ankersen
Dragan Å olak
Rolf Bögli (Appointed by minority shareholder Katharina Liebherr.)
Toby Steele (Will serve until his departure later in the year.)

Andy Young

"These are the first of many changes that we will be making to ensure the success of the club. Our incoming Director of Football, Jason Wilcox, will lead a review of the football department and we will announce the club’s leadership team for next season in the coming weeks.

"By taking these steps now, we are laying the groundwork for our goal of returning Southampton FC to the Premier League as soon as possible.

"We take this opportunity to reiterate our unwavering commitment to Southampton FC and to thank the club’s fans for their dedicated support.

Clearly Sport Republic having entrusted the running of the club to the old guard, are not happy with the result and will now start to run things their way.

The last year has seen a lack of direction and leadership in the day to day running of the club, something that Sports Republic had left to Semmens and his previous board.

Some things were not the fault of the club, such as the appointment of Joe Shields as head of recruitment only to see him poached by Chelsea within a few months.

Others have to be laid at the feet of Sports Republic who although not directly involved on a day to day basis surely saw what was going on.

The interesting thing now will be whether the talks with Russell Martin were instigated by Martin Semmens or Sports Republic, It could be either, however I would be surprised if this shake up has come out of the blue for Martin Semmens and if he was indeed the man leading the negotiations he would have surely been reined in by the owners, so my bet is that Martin is Sport Republic's choice

Whichever way you look at it this is positive news, it shows that the owners are not sitting back but have taken the bull by the horns before the season is finished.

They are going to do things their way and now they have shown that they are willing to back their own convictions.

The appointment of Andy Young is interesting. he was previously the Chief Financial Officer of City Football Group who own Manchester City, New York City FC and a host of other club's and football interests around the World.

Given that it could be said that Sport Republic's aim is to mirror City Football Group in many respects, getting so high a profile man on board from CFG, clearly shows that they mean business.

Photo: Action Images

washington_saint added 21:49 - May 22 Why is it positive news? SR have been nothing but a disaster since coming into our club. If Ankersson and Kraft have an even bigger say now how on earth can that be good news? If large numbers of staff (both senior and mid-level) are leaving/have left that does not indicate a happy camp and no company can move forward in those circumstances (large amounts of disaffected staff).

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SanMarco added 22:09 - May 22 Well I suppose it is 'positive' compared to all the other news we've had in the last few months Washington!! We are just left hoping that someone at some stage, hopefully soon, will start to look as if they know what they are doing...
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davenbennett added 22:15 - May 22 Ankerson was in charge of Football strategy. So, if anyone is to be blamed, it's him. Any other business, he would have been sacked. This is NOT got news. Look like getting a manager who plays tippy tappy crap and won nothing. I fear for the future. If we go straight down I wouldn't be surprised. Of course I want us to win with over 100 points and 100 goals. We shall see which one we end next season closer to.

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SaintNick added 23:23 - May 22 The truth is none of us know who has had the real control, but it seems that the day to day control was Semmens with guidance from Sport Republic, that is now changing they are getting their own men in . It is easy to say sack Ankersen, but he is a co owner of the club not an employee
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AmericanSaint added 23:46 - May 22 Nick, while this is a step in the right direction, SR needs to be a bit more transparent (if possible). I know somethings need to be done well behind the scenes, but others don's and SR has lost a lot of credibility with the fanbase over the last 4+ months. Again, if Ankersen is pulling strings and making choices (bad ones so far), then how does this bode well for the future as the same crap mistakes will be made. Only time will tell, but this is more like "neutral" news and one we all expected with the horrible season we have had.

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Fordy added 07:57 - May 23 So we've just appointed the man who was the CFO ultimately responsible for a club that has just been charged with 155 financial irregularities? I hope all due diligence was done on this appointment, but with SR it seems all you have to do is have Man City somewhere on your CV.
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WestSussexSaint added 09:02 - May 23 It was only a matter of time before Semmens was sent on his way as he was the last senior director of the pre SR days. The timing now fits SR’s narrative of blaming the old guard for relegation and “wiping the slate clean” with a new direction in the Championship. Relegation was down to muddled thinking and recruitment on the football side. Most of that was down to Ankerson. Semmens was never really into the football side and he left that down to Ralph which is why he had so much power and left a vacuum that wasn’t really replaced last season. One thing for sure is that if there were conflicting voices at board level this at least should bring a unite front going forwards with alignment of SR , Saints club board , Wilcox and Russell Martin - whether the strategy is correct or not remains to be seen!

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DPeps added 12:33 - May 23 Sorry, a bit off-topic... I just remembered when we had Ralph Krueger as Chairman 😂
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Monksway added 12:44 - May 23 I suspect this change is, not unreasonably driven by, Dragan Slovak. He must be furious and will now take more control of SR. I'm guessing Rasmus Ankerson got a tight bollocking, sacked Semmens and has been moved away from the day to day stuff which he got horribly wrong. Moving forward the three key people from a team perspective will be Wilcox, the manager and the head of recruitment.

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Jesus_02 added 07:31 - May 24 Sports Republic have invested significantly more into this club than has been in recent years. To blame them for the wastefulness and the failures seems mad. Semmens had to go, he has made the 3 worst managerial decisions since Jan Poortvliet was appointed. From what I see they have given the incumbent board a go, they have failed and now they have sacked them. Seems pretty straight forward to me

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IanRC added 16:04 - May 24 Monksway, hope so/#.
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