Saints chairman Ralph Krueger believes the club ended up enjoying a “dream summer” and that they are now in an even stronger position than they were last season.

Despite suggestions at times over the past few months that St Mary’s had collapsed into a state of crisis or meltdown, Saints emerged from the transfer window with a sense of optimism and boasting an impressive-looking squad.

While Krueger admitted the board did not do everything perfectly during a turbulent summer, he is confident the club is in fine shape.

“We feel we’re in a stronger position than when we entered this crazy transfer window,” he said.

“If someone had told me in the middle of May that, if you look at the outs, including the managerial team, and you look at the ins, we would be standing here speaking about what we have, I would have said that would be a dream summer.”

Krueger hailed the work conducted by fellow board members Les Reed – the point man on football decisions – and chief executive Gareth Rogers, as well as the scouting and recruitment staff headed up by Paul Mitchell.

Despite the high-profile departures of Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Dejan Lovren and Calum Chambers, Saints believe they have more than offset that with a significant reinvestment of about £60m.

That has seen them bring in Dusan Tadic, Graziano Pelle, Fraser Forster, Florin Gardos, Shane Long and Sadio Mane, not to mention loan deals for Ryan Bertrand and Toby Alderweireld, with options to buy both of those players existing.

“I think we are deeper than we were last season,” said Krueger, who does not expect Saints to go through a transfer window as eventful as this one again.

“There's tough decisions for the manager every day, which is what we wanted to create.

“Overall, I believe it has been a big success and now we need to prove it on the field.”

He added: “There was a time in the summer where everybody would be thankful just for the team to be slightly competitive.

“I think we are more than slightly competitive now and we just have to stay patient.

"There are a lot of changes. We've got a new management staff, so we're very patient. The potential of this group will not necessarily show up in the next few weeks.

"Everybody around it needs to understand that all this change needs some time."

As well as adding to the squad, the board and the manager, Ronald Koeman, were also able to keep hold of certain key players, notably Jay Rodriguez and Morgan Schneiderlin.

Krueger admitted the situation with Schneiderlin had been a delicate one, with the midfielder having expressed his desire to leave, but that he has enormous admiration for how the France international star has handled it.

“When we made the decision as a club (not to sell Schneiderlin), I have to say that there were conversations afterwards, but it never got uncomfortable,” Krueger said.

“It never left the realm of being respectful, and I respect Morgan even more today than I did when this all started, just because of the end process, the decisions we made, and we gave him time.

“I think I said right from the start that I was never upset about his immediate reaction, knowing that we’re all human beings and that can happen, and over time he’s showed so much character and his reaction has been on the pitch to be the best possible player he can be and to accept the decision.

“It’s a great example for an approach where a club and a player maybe have differences, but always deal eye-to-eye. We communicated very openly with each other.”

Ralph Krueger was speaking at the Sunseeker stand at this year’s PSP Southampton Boat Show.