Krueger: Well we just have an outstanding group of
people who did the deals this summer led by Les Reed supported by Gareth
Rodgers and Paul Mitchell. There was a
team in place there on multiple levels that just took care of business step by
step through the summer in possibly the most difficult window that any club has
experienced. The manager being replaced at the beginning, all the way through
we were up and down with many different types of emotions but we are extremely
pleased with the end product. We think
we have made good business decisions. We
have made good sports decisions. We have a comfortable feeling going into the
season now. We have a great group of leaders in the football world now behind
Ronald Koeman. We have a team that is
filled with character. The players have
been identified by our recruiting system over years and were targets for us and
seemed to fit the Southampton way and so lots of good things going on right
now.
Q: Do you think you had it all right or do you think
there were any mistakes made or would you do anything differently if you had
the time again?
Krueger: Well, you never get everything 100%
right. I mean that’s unrealistic. I mean I grow and learn every single day in
my job as does everybody else in our club and what’s most important to me is
that we did everything with integrity right through the whole window. We stuck to the strong principles that we put
in place before the window began and that’s what I’m proud of as a chairman but
more than anything we will learn from this window, of course. We are going to dissect every single step of
the way. We will look at it from every
angle. We are far from perfect. We know
that. We will learn a lot from what
we’ve done but I think overall in the end the big picture is strong and that’s
what we had to fight for.
Q: And how strong would you say the squad is now
in comparison to before the transfer window opened?
Krueger: Well we definitely feel more depth in the
lineup and I think that that’s something that was the goal right from the
get-go. The last year we played on this string of maybe truly a starting 11 and
not much behind it and now we fell there is going to be lots of healthy
internal competition. We feel that we
have retained the quality if not built on it substantially so now the results
on the pitch will decide the end. The end result will be at the end of May. Until
then we will gather all the points we can but standing here with you right now here
underneath all of these boats I feel that we are in a really strong position to
have an enjoyable season together with our fans.
Q: And, financially, what sort of position has
the business over the summer left the club in now?
Krueger: Well, it certainly always an eye also on the
fact that we have raised salaries in the club where we are in a strong position
going forward. We feel comfortable. We are taking steps to increase our
commercial growth but overall I think that the discipline that was shown
throughout the transfer window by the recruiting forces in the team, by Les
Reed and his people, was extremely good.
Every time somebody went out and every time somebody came in we redid
the numbers. We rechecked everything. We were careful. We were building a
sustainable model here. We are not
building something that is just going to be good for one day or a week or a
month. No. This is supposed to be for
years and we have had the financial discipline to walk along that line.
Q: And in terms of the club’s reputation, I know
when suddenly several of your best players have left at the beginning of the
summer there is a little bit of bad press and some jokes on social media—that sort of thing.
But now that’s all over, how do you think the club stands in the public
eye now?
Krueger: I really avoided it in my role through the
summer. It’s not good to be influenced
too much by the emotions and the passions of the fans through the summer. I respect it extremely, but we needed to stay
on topic. We needed to make sure we made
the decisions for the right reasons and we did that so looking at it now or
getting information from the media and communications team now we’ve come out
of it strong. The people are behind
us. They believe in the direction we are
going and we can’t ask for anything more than that.
Q: Finally, in terms of how the season has gone
so far, what are your thoughts?
Krueger: I think it’s been a great start. The match in Liverpool brought respect. We had a bit of a challenging game then
against West Brom and I think we would have liked points out of it but we took
one which was at least a building point for the excellent result in West Ham so
all-in-all, we are in a good position after three matches and let’s build on that
against Newcastle.
I
suppose that a brief interview at a boat show is not the best place to ask in
depth questions, but I wish the interview had asked a few tougher
questions. I would certainly like to
know why Chambers was sold and whether the decision not to sell Schneiderlin
and Rodriguez was a change of plan made in the middle of the transfer window or
whether they were never going to be sold.
I am a
little curious as to what Krueger means by doing everything with integrity
through the whole transfer window. I am
not suggesting that they lacked integrity—I just am not sure what it means in
this context.
I am
also curious as to what it means to say that the players were identified by the
recruiting system over the years. Take,
for example, Saido Mane. How long have
we been following him? Would it have
made sense to buy him for less sooner and develop him at St. Mary’s? Or was it necessary to wait because he could
not have gotten a work permit last year?
Were Tadic and Pelle really on our radar before we hired Ronald Koeman?
I am
puzzled by the “we have raised salaries in the club” language. My unreliable calculation of player salaries
suggests that they are only up slightly.
On the other hand, it wouldn’t surprise me if this coaching staff is being paid
significantly more than the last one.
And, of course, as a team stays in the premier league it adds employees
all the time—that is one more reason why relegation can be so devastating—especially
for a club like Fulham that had been in the BPL for many years. Southampton fans would know all about that,
but with the greater TV income now, the danger is much greater.
I hope
this transcript was useful.
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