Opinion: Southampton have got it bang on with their new board structure

Southampton hosted a very open Q&A session with 40 fans who attended every one of the club’s games in the 2018/19 season recently.

It was a chance to provide honest answers to the questions that their supporters wanted to ask and also present members of the new board structure.

With the departures of Les Reed and Ralph Krueger over the past year, it was vital that new appointments were made that would help Saints back to a more familiar and stable path.

Majority shareholder Gao Jisheng was announced as the club’s new Chairman, whilst Martin Semmens became the new CEO.

Katharina Liebherr and Nelly Gao also joined Semmens as members of the St Mary’s Football Group board, and it appears that this setup will produce the perfect environment for others to work in.

The most important person from a footballing point of view is Ralph Hasenhuttl, whilst the role of Ross Wilson as Director of Football Operations cannot be underestimated.

Both were very detailed in their explanations of the plans that are being laid down to get moving forward once again – meaning that the excellent current manager will have the best environment to get his values in place with absolute efficiency.

Hasenhuttl, Semmens and Wilson all joined Chief Commercial Officer David Thomas at the special Fans Forum and they made a really positive first impression of things to come.

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First of all, the mutual understanding appeared to be very strong and each of them linked their individual area of work to another.

Semmens in particular seemed to be a very down to earth character and showed good knowledge when talking about both the commercial and business side and the football side – ideal as CEO of course but at least he looked genuine as he was speaking.

One other impressive thing to come out of their answers to the fans’ questions was their admittance to previous mistakes.

Wilson made reference to both the offering of a new contract to Mark Hughes at the end of the 2018/19 season and the expensive signing of Guido Carrillo, saying that both were moves that the club now regrets.

After two to three poor seasons and a drop in standards overall, it was vital that the club took action instead of freezing.

With new appointments and an honest assessment of past mistakes, it looks like they have done just that.

A concern was perhaps the appointment of Gao Jisheng as Chairman, but the respect between the panel members and Nelly Gao – who was also at the Fans Forum – showed an understanding too. Having Katharina Liebherr with an influence still too will help the club return to its former values that were implemented by her father Markus.

They will realise though that the fans remain the most important part of the club and make it what it is. Therefore, this new found honesty and openness can only be seen as a good thing.