A lot of fans have been ranting on Social Media about who is to blame for this season's debacle, but most are the names they know without looking at what the structure is.
Most Saints fans seem to be blaming two people apart from Mauricio Pellegrino for the problems at Saints this season and that is Ralph Krueger and Les Reed, now whilst it cannot be denied that both have played a part in this season's issues, to blame them for everything and claim the club is in complete meltdown because of on field results is a simplisitc view.
But that is football fans in general, most base how healthy our club is off the field purely on results on it, four years ago most thought that the club was in good health, it was nudging the top ten and had a Chairman/CEO n Nicola Cortese who hadn't said much but what he had was promising the Champions League as if it was as simple as operating a calculator where as long as you press the right buttons you get the right result.
But it turned out that Cortese was cashing cheques he couldn't cash, the club's budget was running wildly out of control and Katharina Liebherr as the actual owner could not get access to her own club.
Things had to change and with commercial income at one of the lowest in the Premier League and the training ground cost spiralling out of control, not to mention £35 million wasted on signings that barely played for the club in their time here, things had to change.
Ms Liebherr put into place a proper management structure and since then off the field the club's income from Commercial activities has risen five fold.
This is not to say that everthing is rosy, but it is perhaps not as bad as some would think, take a look at Everton no one would claim that they are badly run, indeed they have a majority shareholder who has pumped multi millions in, yet they have done little better than Saints. That is the point with Premier League football, there is a limit to what you can achieve on a season in season out basis and I am afraid that is purely down to money.
The Big Six can get theirs from a variety of sources on top of the Premier League and TV money and although we can also get ours from the same sources, they have more pulling power, look at Manchester United, their shirt sponsorship deal alone is worth £70 million, ours is £7 million and that is roughly 8-10th in the division, that should tell you all you need to know about the gap Saints need to broach, to be blunt there is only one way to do so and that is develop and sell players at a huge profit and keep on doing so.
There are many who say that we can't keep selling and doing just that, but we have no other choice, the big clubs get bigger and the rest get smaller in comparison, Ralph Krueger was ill advised with his small club comments, but in terms of the Big Six he was exactly right, we can't take them on on our own terms, we have to do it on ours.
So perhaps now is a good time to look at who is who in the Saints management structure and where their culpability lies, this is not to point the finger or indeed to suggest that the board have got everything right, purely to give an unbiased overview of who is hwo in the structure.
Gao- He is effectively the owner in that he owns 80% of the club, but that does not mean he has to be hands on in running it, no big company majority shareholder is, they delegate those to run the company for them, they wll instruct those below them to do that and in any company structure football or otherwise they will rarely make public announcements.
Indeed when do you see the majority shareholders in the likes of Liverpool, Man City, Spurs, Arsenal or Man Utd do interviews or go publc, the answer is rarely, only Roman Abramovich has a high profile and recent events in Salisbury may give a clue as to why it is advantageous for him to do that.
So Gao will delegate and he will have done so. The big worry is we don't know what his intentions are, but so far he has done nothing to suggest that they are bad, he is at the moment no better or worse than any other owner of a football club foreign or otherwise, as he lives in China which is a 20 hour flight away, he is obviously not going to be popping over to watch the team every weekend.
Yes his long term goal might be to develop the waterfront by St Mary's but that could be a very good thing for the club.
Ralph Krueger- As Chairman his job is part time, he is the owner's representative he has to oversee that the club is being run in line with the owners wishes, he will not get involved in the day to day running, the only person he is truly responsible for appointing is usually the CEO/ Managing director, although it would appear that Krueger due to his sports background will from time to time take a bigger role as when needed in that he sits on the Executive board.
Per se Krueger cannot demand that a manager be sacked he has to oversee those that are and ultimately give the nod if that is what the director of football wants to do.
Toby Steele _ Formerly the Finance Director, Steele took over last July as Managing Director after the departure of Gareth Rodgers last July. He is the man who runs the club on a day to day basis and makes sure that every department is running smoothly and well in all departents, his nae has not been mentioned at all, but in simple terms he is the link between the owner and his representative (Kruegger) and the club itself.
Les Reed - He is the man who gets the most stick, he is responsible for a lot more than just the first team at the club, all footballing departments answer to him, he has built up a great infrastructureat Staplewood and the rebuilding of the youth structure that had had to be virtually abandoned for a couple of years a decade ago as no younsters would sign for a club going bust.
But his biggest job is to oversee the appiontment and continued employment of the first team manager and it seems he is willing to gamble his job on the fact that Pellegrino will come good and that is a worry.
There has to be a point though when he will blink and sack Pellegrino if results continue, that moment may be now, perhaps we are in talks with the new man already, but I suspect the Cup quarter final will be where the line will be drawn either way.
When you consider that already this season over half the managers at Premier Leage clubs have been sacked and that few do even three seasons at a club, it should be noted that every club makes bad appointments and bad signings, but those that succeed don't panic and stick to their structure, but there has to be a point where you have to make the right call and for reed that time is now.
So there you have it, the main players, Southampton Football Club is a big operation these days, it generates a lot of income, but ultimately it will be judged by it's fans on the results on the field and few will take into account anything else.
That is perhaps right, after all that's why we support it, but over the years the club has rarely had a period so consistent as this one up till now at least and we should take that into account when considering whether the club is in complete chaos or merely suffering as all football clubs do from time to time.
My view is that we still have a great infrastructure in place and are better placed to move forward next season whatever division we are in more than most, those that keep pointing to the selling of players should look at what other choices we have to be able to raise money to sign more players and compete financially, look at Virgil Van Dijk we tried to keep him and where did it get us, that should be a lesson to those who say we sell the moment that someone makes a bid.
Saints have a game plan which ideally would see a player sign, stay three years and then be sold at a vast profit and the process repeated, the problem is we have been too succesful at this over the last four years, yes who were the reasons for that as yourself, this ame plan is not in our hands it is firmly in the players and their agents, once they have the chance to triple their wages and play in the Champions League etc which brings them even more money it is hard to keep them I'm afraid.
That is not Les Reed's fault, nor anyone at the club, it is the reality of the Premier League now.
So 90% of Saints fans on average judging by various polls want Pellegrino out, they think he is not the man for the job, I am one of them, but I don't think everything is corrupt at the club just because we are getting one decision wrong, anymore than I will think the manager is suddenly the right man should he escape relegation and win us the FA Cup.
Let's concentrate on what is truly wrong with this club and that is the manager !