Southampton: Saints chairman Krueger to leave club at end of season
By Marc Walker
Southampton have announced that Chairman Ralph Krueger will be leaving the club at the end of the current season.
He joined Saints back in 2014 and was responsible for making many of the major decisions involving the club along with Les Reed.
Whilst today’s announcement comes as a surprise, Saints have struggled near the foot of the Premier League for the last two years and a restructuring at boardroom level was perhaps needed.
Majority shareholder Gao Jisheng said in a statement:
"“Ralph represented our club with honour and integrity, and followed The Southampton Way with great passion. We thank him for the foundations he has helped to build and wish him well for the future.”"
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The same club statement said that the club would be releasing further details of the restructuring process at the end of the 2018/19 season and this will be getting many Saints fans thinking about the future of their team.
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Whilst it is a positive move to shake things up and build again towards something better, both Les Reed and Krueger leaving will see a completely new set of faces coming in.
Criticism has been aimed at both Reed and Krueger about some of the managerial appointments in recent years but they were key players in the rise of the club to European football.
With little information from Mr Gao on his plans for the club moving forward, it is rather unclear which direction they will be going in next season.
Previous bad examples of owners with little experience in football have been seen at clubs like Cardiff and Hull, so reassurances will need to be made to everyone involved.
For the Saints supporters, it will be vital that the key values of the club are retained during this process and that things aren’t stirred up too much this summer.
It will be an important time for first-team manager Ralph Hasenhuttl and his players anyway as they prepare for 2019/20 and they will want distractions to be as limited as possible.
The upturn for Saints under Hasenhuttl has been superb and strong foundations now need to be made to ensure he can continue his good work into the future.
With six Premier League games remaining this campaign, the club’s Premier League survival hopes remain in their own hands as they sit five points clear of the relegation zone.