The early part of the summer was a painful time to be a Saints fan with many screaming that Katharina Liebherr was interested only in asset stripping the club, now we know the truth.

As Mauricio Pochettino departed St Mary's and a host of players demanded to follow him out of the door, many Saints supporters vented their fury at Katharina Liebherr and her board, at best they were accusing them of incompetence, at worst that they were asset stripping.

All they could really do was let the supporters rant and quietly get on with the job of rebuilding, indeed in an interview Ralph Krueger said

“That’s our goal, by September 1st, that you can look me in the eyes and say ‘When I look at everything, and I take all the emotions out, this is actually a stronger squad, a deeper squad than we had last year.’”

Some did not want to believe him, they had bought into claims that the club had been about to challenge the big clubs for the Champions league places, they thought this was now gone.

Somewhere around 12 months ago many were filled with false hope, they wanted to believe that the Champions League was only a mere matter of signing a couple of players and doing things the "Southampton Way" they failed to notice that there were a lot of clubs with better foundations and spending more money who also had those ambitions, jumping from 14th to 4th would not be easy, Everton & Spurs struggled to jump from 6th to 4th, but some people did not seem to consider this.

The 8th place finish was great, but history doesnt show teams who finish in that position jumping forward, it usually shows them dropping back, mainly because they lose a player or two who got them there, Ok for Saints to lose so many was a rareity, but beating 8th place this coming season was going to be very hard without big investment, after all look how much Manchester United who finished one place ahead of us have spent.

Perhaps Mauricio Pochettino knew this and that is why he got out whilst his stock was high, he knew that if Saints were to get any higher than 8th then the squad needed significant investment and that was not going to be forthcoming.

Indeed would it have been any improvement, the core of the squad was there in place since the days of Alan Pardew, in fact before him in some cases, in both of the Premier League seasons, big money had been spent, but spent badly in the main, of the five players who left for big money, three had been at the club since before Cortese arrived and one had been signed by Alan Pardew leaving only Dejan Lovren as a recent arrival.

Any football club goes through periods of transition and now it was Saints turn, it did not need to be as traumatic as it was, it cannot be denied mistakes have been made in the boardroom, but now we stand on the day Ralph Krueger asked us to judge them on and it has to be said that Katharina Liebherr and her board have not lied to us nor let us down, they have kept good their promise to reinvest the money that has come in from transfers and we now have a squad that is bigger and stronger than before.

In my opinion we have a better manager, he has to be given a lot of credit for the signings made, yes Les Reed and his team have spent many months identifying these signings, but appointing Koeman was crucial, he had the reputation to convince these players to come to Saints and that we were not the sinking ship some would have you believe.

Saints now have the foundations to build on what we have achieved over the past few years, that is not just about the playing squad, it is also about building a commercial structure to bring in income to the club, this is vital, over the past two seasons are commercial income has been around £6 million, that sounds a lot until you realise that even the likes of Fulham or Stoke were earning £14 million and upwards and someone like Spurs a club we professed to be about to usurp were bringing in £70 million plus, if we couldnt compete with Stoke off the pitch how did we expect to compete with Spurs.

So the changes at St Mary's are more than just about the playing side its about building a structure that can stand up by itself, that has always been the Liebherr way, when Markus took over he did not promise us Champions League football, he talked of a five year plan to get us back in the Premier League and make us self sufficient, we were never going to be something he would put in the multi millions that say Roman Abramovich is at Chelsea.

So Katharina and Ralph have delivered what they promised, she has shown that Saints means more to her than the chance to asset strip and put money in the bank, those who accused her of doing that owe her a big apology and perhaps Markus one too.

Photo: Action Images

SaintNick added 16:47 - Sep 2 Im led to believe that Chambers had a release clause in his contract that meant if a club in the Champions league bid over a certain figure that he could leave, hence why he went so quickly
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thegeneral added 17:38 - Sep 2 I have been critical, but feel i'm only guilty of loving my club. I had the feeling with the young players we had that we were akin to the young Manchester United team that Ferguson built an empire on. I had never felt so excited at what we were capable of with just a few additions. Of course champions league was a way off but not unachievable with the core of players we had, after all the majority have gone to champions league clubs. Most disappointing is that we are Southampton who dared to dream and have been quickly and effectively put down, MP leaving didn't bother me, i think we reached the limit of his talent and because he was so one dimensional tactically we would have lost more games this season, having been found out. Its just the feeling that in future seasons any players we develop, discover and bring on will always be cherry picked by the big five and where does that leave us? Perhaps playing in the premiership is our reward?, it is after all a great place to be playing football. I am happy that we are secure, we have a future and that is down to the board, i just have a little whimsical pang for what might have been.

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BoondockSaint added 17:41 - Sep 2 You won't have a worldwide brand if you don't promote it worldwide. As I have mentioned before I have had my Saints crest recognized in New Jersey by a guy from Africa! So we are not completely unknown. A couple of preseason games in other countries would help-particularly countries that we have players from. Everyone was wondering why so many Premier teams were over in the US this summer-simple-brand recognition in a country where the Prem is growing fast and a popluation willing to pay for shirts and other gear. Van Gaal complained that the tour was nothing to do with football, just "commercial reasons" While the population is not as big as China, there's not as much of a problem of pirating shirts, so profit margin is better.

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Whatsforpud added 17:51 - Sep 2 One or two here have advocated having a stadium expansion. If we are playing well, and are hosting one of the big teams, we get 31k+. Otherwise our attendance often falls short. There were 5k empty seats versus WBA. Ok, their support was poor, but we didn't fill up the empty space. The average last season - an entertaining season - was 30,2k. When we do have a 'sell-out', we often don't reach the 32k mark. We should abandon the ridiculous netting by the away fans, as many Premier League grounds do. Also, being a relatively affluent area, we should be filling up all the corporate hospitality boxes by now. Empty seats look bad - we must fill up the ground every time before thinking of expansion.

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saintstowin added 19:27 - Sep 2 I'm a very relieved supporter, not solely due to the window (which was certainly positive) but mainly because it became clear, admittedly later into the traumatic summer, that we were still well run and intended to compete this season. Koeman looks like a proper leader. The transfers out hurt and could definitely have been handled more competently even if the outcome remained the player leaving, leading to even the more positive supporters (I am one) to question the plan. But that was then and this is now. We look decent and able to not only keep possession, but take it up a gear or two whilst remaining pretty solid at the back. I'm looking forward to our annual 3 points at home v Newcastle. phew.

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ChristchurchSaint added 20:28 - Sep 2 "Keep the faith" was preached on here, and some chose to ignore it. I did believe it would come right by today, and hopefully the season will prove us "happy clappers" right. We may have lost some big names, but we have others in who will take their places as headline makers. I will admit that there were one or two times when I did wobble ( selling Chambers?) and I agree that the silence was infuriating, but as was eloquently put by Harry R, it IS a poker game and one slip could have meant us losing one of our new shining stars. The stars are shining over St Mary's and long may they stay there. PS No comment yet from Monte Cristo? Maybe he is trying to find something negative to say!!!

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bendybob added 20:40 - Sep 2 Well written and nicely summarised Nick
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landsdownsaint added 21:44 - Sep 2 Iv definitely eaten my words!
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bstokesaint added 23:05 - Sep 2 Well said Nick. The chairman came out twice to calm fans' concerns. Okay there was a silence prior to this, but he didn't have to do that. Cortese wouldn't have answered to the fans. Ralph made promises and they were kept in full. I wanted to believe and extended this faith in him. I'm glad I did because I can honestly say I'm as happy now as I was last season, maybe even more so.. I think that's largely down to Koeman. I feel he is with us as opposed to using us and he has big plans.

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Saintsfaninoz added 10:15 - Sep 3 SanMarco. I get what you are saying about the importance of non-football related income and the importance of worldwide branding (I live in Australia where no-one has heard of the Saints except those who follow football). However, the real revenue comes from TV rights (both UK and overseas). The only way to increase TV revenue is to win consistently so that the team is featured in the prime-time live games. To do that, we need to have a good team that delivers results. Everything else stems from that. Increased revenue can be used to increase investment, both on and off the pitch. I agree, though, more work is needed to increase the exposure of the Saints' "Brand".

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aceofthebase added 00:16 - Sep 4 Can't wait for these chants 'There's only one Les Reed'. Three cheers for the Owner and management, perhaps led by our very own Monte
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aceofthebase added 14:40 - Sep 5 jUST LOVE HAVING THE LAST WORD!
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montecristo added 12:05 - Sep 10 to put a cap on the argument over the transfer window, there is a report in the press today suggesting the FA should change the rules to prevent young players asking for a transfer before they have payed a certain number of first team games. I agree with that, what happened this summer was monstrous, should never have been allowed, and did the club s image no good whatsoever, Now big clubs more than ever before will feel they only have to come knocking for our best players to be sold off no doubt for ridiculous sums. its not fair on the fans, and ultimately a retrograde step in the search for a top four place.

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