Ralph Hasenhuttl has been speaking to the press about his involvement in Sport Republic's buy out Chairman Gao and subsequent majority shareholding in the club and revealed that he has been part of the process throughout.

Ralph Hasenhuttl would on the face of it be the type of manager that Rasmus Ankersen and the Sport republic group would be looking at under normal circumstances and it seems the fact that he is already at the club they have bought is a bonus.

"I've had a chance to talk to them," Ralph confirmed. "I must say that the long journey we had to find a new owner, I'm confident it will be a successful one. It was immediately a very good communication with them.

"They are good people. They know about football, they know about the business, and they will help us in the future to find quicker solutions. Quicker chances for doing the right things in this market.

"I see it a little bit different [to fans]. We get a lot of knowledge. We also get the chance to be earlier in our signings. But it doesn't mean we change our behaviours. So we don't go out into the market and buy everything that is around. It doesn't make any sense.

"We want to pick the players, the [Tino] Livramentos, the [Armando] Brojas, this new owner gives us the chance to get these guys earlier. This is what we want to have.

"In the past, it was very often that we had to sell players before we could sign new players. This will change now massively.

"But it doesn't mean we are now going for every player that is available. This is the reason why we are so happy that this Group decides to take us.

"You can be sure that such an investor doesn't make this decision by one day watching a club. They have looked very carefully. They have seen we have a clear strategy, a clear plan of how we want to develop this club. To make it healthy here for the club. This is the main reason they choose us."

These are positive words from the manager and it is good news for Saints supporters, some though have been critical in the past, some of that criticism can be justified, but in my opinion most of it could not be.

Since he joined Ralph Hasenhuttl knew he was going to be working under stringent conditions inherited from poor transfer dealings under a previous regime that saw around a dozen players signed expensively, paid highly and then doing little and being shipped out on loan.

Therefore some slack has to be cut for the manager for some of the things that didn't go quite right.

Now however it seems some of those restrictions will be lifted, some would have happened naturally, Fraser Forster and Alex McCarthy were between them costing around £7.5 million in wages, they are both out of contract in the summer and the savings are substantial.

But as Ralph says we now have the opportunity for cash to be injected into the club when needed and not having to wait till money was freed up elsewhere either by big earners leaving or by selling someone first.

Now we will see the real Ralph Hasenhuttl and the way he works, he has to have a clean sheet from his critics, judge him not just on the last three years where he has had to battle to keep the club out of relegation trouble something that he has managed well.

No judge him on what he does in the future !

As I said we have to leave the past just where it is, firmly behind us, we are still in the Premier League after some tough years, now hopefully we can move forward again now with the new owners.

Lets learn from the past, not let it drag us down!

Photo: Action Images

ElijahK added 12:17 - Jan 7 Main thing I was happy to hear is that we’ll be going for more of the Livermento’s and Broja’s as well as not having to sell players to buy them. As if that is the case, and we can keep getting them and signing them permanently, then we sure can get back up that table once again and actually have a shot in winning a thing or two.
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beynali73 added 13:55 - Jan 7 Very positive and balanced sounds coming from Ralph. His integrity has never been in doubt so his words do reassure me. Despite the restrictions he has had to operate under he has generally kept things positive which must have been very difficult but this does demonstrate his very strong mental core. Hopefully this does indeed give Ralp a more stable and flexible position from which to make clear and rational footballing decisions and will allow him to forward plan more effectively. I do believe he still needs a robust and independent assistant to help him made sound decisions so fingers crossed. All round it sounds positive and the new stability will provide Ralph with a platform to realise his and this clubs undoubted potential.

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kingolaf added 14:27 - Jan 7 I’ve been a huge critic of the manager. But you are right with the fact that he came in at a difficult time, and he has had to operate in the transfer market under difficult circumstances. I’m happy to back him for now and see how it goes.
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davidargyll added 17:03 - Jan 7 One of the companies that Henrique Kraft is on the Board of is Tonsser, a directory of next generation footballers, which I think will be a really useful tool to enable the scouting team to ferret out some really excellent talent well before they get picked up elsewhere. Well worth having a look at…
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felly1 added 18:26 - Jan 7 I do feel that Ralph fits the model of a progressive and intelligent manager and will buy into what our new owners will be hoping to achieve. It's getting harder and harder just to stay in the Premier league unless you literally spend 100s of millions, so the best way to achieve relative success for a club of our size and stature is through a clear long term plan. A strong and stable defence with a solid keeper playing to a clear gameplan with a few decent back up players and then hopefully that allows the talent in the midfield and the attacking positions to shine. As always being a Saints fan, excitement has to be tempered with a bit of realism.

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Sadoldgit added 19:41 - Jan 7 Such good news. At long last we seem to have owners, a board and a manager who are all singing from the same hymn sheet. As Nick said, now that Ralph has the shackles off, hopefully we will see him flourish and the time to judge his true abilities will be once the new people have bedded in.
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