It has now been well over a month since the news broke that Russell Martin was the man for Southampton FC, yet here we are five weeks later and we still do not have the announcement that the new man is in charge, but that is about to change.
The fact that Saints are still without a manager a month after the Premier League season ended is the subject of much debate on social media, some Saints supporters see this as yet another reason to berate the club and claim that it shows how Sport Republic are in disarray.
The truth is the opposite, with key figures in the everyday running of the club such as Martin Semmens and Toby Steel now gone, Sport Republic is already appointing new men in key positions, Jason Wilcox as Director of Football for instance and he has been working behind the scenes to revamp the footballing side of things.
But it is the new manager who is the subject of much debate and why he has not yet been appointed.
The simple truth is one of compensation, Southampton & Swansea could not agree at just when Saints cease to become a Premier League club.
As has been oft reported, the Swans have a release clause in Russell Martin's contract that says that if he leaves for a Premier League club then they receive around £1 million, but if it is a Championship club then the amount is around £400,000.
Saints hoped Swansea would play ball and accept that once it was mathematically impossible for Saints to stay up, that would be the moment and the Swans think otherwise.
Indeed they are trying to contend that the initial approach was made with Saints in the Premier League so they should receive the full amount, that holds little water, talking does not equal appointing a manager.
Southampton were hoping that last Thursday after the Premier League AGM would be the day they could appoint their man, but it seems that Swansea still disagreed with that, now to make sure there can be no dispute it seems that Saints are waiting for the English Football League AGM to be completed and the Championship fixture lists to be published.
That seems to be the moment when Swansea City will have no cause to claim that Southampton FC is a Premier League club.
It could be said this has benefitted neither club, I would say that it is Swansea who have suffered most, back in May when Saints approached Martin, the Championship season was over and he was about to go on holiday, of course he would be normally be speaking to the club about players etc, but in essence he was doing little.
So by delaying the inevitable all Swansea have done is pay his wages for a month and for that matter those of his coaching staff, I'm not sure what the figure would be, but I suggest that it would be six figures, if Swansea had played ball then they would have at least eaten into the extra £600k they have been trying to get from Saints and been a little bit better off.
From a Saints perspective the situation is similar as it would have been had they had been able to appoint Martin back in May, with everyone on holiday in the playing squad there was little for him to do other than speak with Jason Wilcox about who he wanted to bring in etc.
The truth is that it won't be until early July after loyalty bonus's have been paid, that transfer business will start and the club will start to see which players are going to be the subject of serious offers and which aren't, but none of this is really in the managers control anyway.
From a Southampton perspective Russell Martin hasn't done much less for the club by not being appointed than he would have been able to have done had he been appointed.
Just about the only difference would have been the obligatory press picture being released of him holding the shirt and a short statement in which he would say some nice things about Southampton FC and promise a Promotion push for the coming season.
The press picture and statement have both been done for weeks it is only a question of when they will be released and it seems that moment is fast approaching, once the Championship fixtures have been released then Swansea will have no grounds to claim we appointed Martin as a Premier league club, it is all about the small print, but that is the route that Swansea have taken and at a time when the club will need to pull in it's belt saving £100k or so is not to be sniffed at.
So I would suggest that the wait is nearly over, at 9am the Championship fixtures will be released, the press release for Russell Martin won't be too far behind.