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.