If any Saints supporter in the summer doubted Katharina Liebherr's commitment to Southampton Football Club, the latest announcement from the club over the training ground has clarified her position.

At the unveiling of the revamped training facilities this morning Saints have confirmed that they have already applied for planning permission to upgrade the facilities further, a two story annex to the Markus Liebherr Pavillion will house the Saints Academy’s education facilities, as well as a treatment room, sports laboratory and additional gym facilities, but it doesn't stop there, construction of an inflatable dome over Staplewood’s 3G pitch is also already under way.

Speaking on the club's official website Executive Director of football Les Reed said.

“This is only phase one of a big project.

“At the moment, we have what we call the Academy Village, which is a portacabin village at the other end of the training ground. It reflects the quality of the people we have that we’ve been able to produce a world-class academy in what are essentially temporary facilities.

“We are taking the people that have worked very, very hard in temporary resources into another bespoke building that will take that development to another level.

“We’re always looking forward, and the fact that we’ve done it in phases has meant that we’ve learned things as we’ve gone along, and everyone will benefit from that — from the academy through to the first team.”

Saints fans can take heart that this whole development has taken the backing from Katharina Liebherr to make it happen, although there are no guarantees in football Katharina seems to be committed to making Southampton Football Club a lasting legacy to her father and there isn't a Saints fan on the planet who would disagree with that.

Now with her new restructuring of the club it can move forward in a positive and united way and it is good to see that the club now sees the benefit of everyone around it including the media, ex players and supporters all being united and with the clubs interests at heart, that has not been the case for several years and it is now good to see.

Photo: Action Images

landsdownsaint added 11:11 - Nov 5 It's a shame NC doesn't get a mention ,he did a lot for our club.
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SaintNick added 11:13 - Nov 5 NC lived by the sword and he died by it, its fair to say that he himself gave no one credit from our past so its ironic that he should now get non himself, I think we will now find that things at Saints happened in spite of NC rather than because of him,
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landsdownsaint added 11:34 - Nov 5 But he obviously knew in order for us to progress where we are today the club needed a massive upheaval! He did that and we are now seeing the rewards . I agree with you that he couldn't continue but he should be remembered for taking the "southampton way" idea to Markus, we wouldn't be where we are now without him .
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SaintNick added 12:32 - Nov 5 The Southampton Way has been in place for 50 years, all of those players who came through our academy including Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers were at the club before NC arrived. Cortese didnt know anything about Saints until he was put in touch with the administrator by the company he had employed to find him an English football club for Markus, he didnt "discover" us himself He will be remembered now as exactly what he was, a man who had a massive ego and actually hampered our progress rather than helped it along, harsh ? yes ! a little biased ? only from the fact i know what went on behind the scenes

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BoondockSaint added 13:45 - Nov 5 Any truth to the story Katharina wants to name a hole in the ground at the building site The Nicola Cortese Money Pit? Cortese drove up the costs by getting the club involved in taking on loans that we didn't need or shouldn't have got for a troublesome player (Osvaldo), lawsuits with contractors because of non-payment and who knows what other "expenses" were charged to the club-that's why Katharina demanded accountability and he quit. I give him credit with getting Markus to buy the club, but that's it. Markus from all accounts was a very honorable man (Pardew said he didn't like the players arguing with the ref as it showed bad sportsmanship). With all the shady characters owning football clubs, we were blessed with getting and owner (and family) of that type. He is the one that should be remembered.

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ItchenNorth added 13:59 - Nov 5 What have the Romans (Cortese) ever done for us? All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans (Cortese) done for us?
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 14:36 - Nov 5 All of this Cortese bashing is way over the top. We wouldn't be in the Premiership today if it wasn't for him. We might not even be in existence if he hadn't recommended us to Markus. Yes he was a ruthless egomaniac, treated people like dirt and all of the rest of it but at the end of the day he drove this club forward and helped take us from League One to the Premiership in three years! Without his absolute dedication, hard work and ambition we wouldn't have done it. He recruited some great managers and made sure we always had a big enough transfer kitty to recruit players capable of playing at a higher level. His ambition carried through the whole club and helped the players believe that the sky is the limit. Even though the guy 'isn't a nice human being' and upset a lot of people along the way, just look at where he got us. He deserves a lot of gratitude from the Saints fans for everything he did for the club. We are, however, better off now that he has left for lots and lots of reasons, the main ones being: 1) because the club is now focussed on sustainability. That is something that Cortese would not have offered if he were still in charge. He would've happily kept over-spending as long as it came out of the Liebherr's pockets. A dangerous approach which would've left us screwed if the Leibherr's walked away. 2) the club has reconnected with the fans and our past heroes. 3) the owner has control of what her money is spent on. 4) segregation of duties etc etc.

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ItchenNorth added 14:46 - Nov 5 Spot on Reedy.
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BoondockSaint added 16:13 - Nov 5 I'm not denying him being the spark that helped Markus buy the club, but he's just getting treated the same way he treated people. He was a bully and deserves every turn of the boot. Hey Itchen, you forgot slavery, torture, feeding people to animals and did you ever have to take Latin in school? 6 tenses in both the active and passive forms!!!! (I'm talking about the Romans, even I wouldn't blame all that on Cortese!)

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1teeminants added 16:50 - Nov 5 Cortes was not a nice person we all know that but you cannot deny he changed the mind set of SFC and helped raise our profile.Yes it wasn't his money to play with but because we signed players in the 10 million plus bracket it made people sit up and take notice and I believe we are no longer seen as this little backwater club and whatever you think of Cortes he has to take some credit for that. He also got Markus in and we wouldn't be here without Markus and he got Pochettino in who was also instrumental in raising our profile and making all the so called experts and pundits take notice of us.

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ItchenNorth added 17:48 - Nov 5 Nice point Boondock lol 😂!
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czsaint added 18:37 - Nov 5 I've not seen this article linked to about Gareth Roger. I particularly liked this quote 'As fans will tell you, Katharina Liebherr comes here most home games. She loves this place, she has a real affinity with Southampton. As she sits here today she does not have the intention to sell the club. What was put out there by many [members] of the press was we might be having an asset strip or a fire sale. It wasn’t any of those things, it was about making the club stronger than it was 12 months ago.” Stronger and stronger. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/leisure/111424

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Consigliere added 19:23 - Nov 5 Once again Daily Telegraph sports reporter spot on - see today's mid-term report on all 20 Premier League teams and especially on the Saints: "Star man: Jose Fonte. Easy to look towards the new signings but Saints have conceded just five goals and Liverpool look like they chose the wrong centre-back. Biggest flop: Saphir Taider. Lasted less than a month at the start of the season because the club felt he did not match their standards. Their target should be: An improvement on eighth last season would still be a huge achievement but the top six now looks feasible. Overall grade: A+"

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GeordieSaint added 20:25 - Nov 5 What about calling it the Nicola Cortese pavilion?
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ChristchurchSaint added 20:42 - Nov 5 Can we please all stop the constant bickering about NC? He has gone and like the players who left us in the summer, he is no longer relevant to us. I do have my views about him and I will admit that he was certainly not my favourite person. However, he was the person who introduced Markus to the idea of investing in our club and deserves our respect for that alone. Today is another step forward in our history, and I, for one, am eternally grateful to Katherina for the committment that she is showing towards the club. The doom mongers who were convinced that she was asset-stripping, lineing up a new buyer etc etc can now hang their heads and humbly admit that they were wrong. Hopefully we will carry on going from strength to strength and show Katherina that Markus' and her belief in the Saints was totally justified.

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SaintDownUnder added 11:55 - Nov 6 One of the hallmarks of this club and its support is its loyalty and dignity. We are real, steadfast, humble and given our past troubles and glories, we are able to handle both with grace and humour. Whether it be ex players, managers or chairman let's thank them, wish them well and March on head held high. To do anything other is unsaintly.
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SaintDownUnder added 11:57 - Nov 6 * except for rupert Lowe, he was a c@#t 😛
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BoondockSaint added 15:57 - Nov 6 More postive press! http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/gareth-bale-theo-walcott-matt-457473
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LanzaSaint added 18:17 - Nov 6 And.......... todays England squad. 5 ex academy graduates, two current players, and Rickie Lambert. Brilliant!! I love being a Saints fan.
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