IT is a picture we would almost certainly never have seen this time last year.

The Southampton FC chairman with a big smile on his face and his arm wrapped around club legend Francis Benali.

But this was the scene last Saturday morning when Ralph Krueger drove to meet Benali as the club’s former defender approached the end of his incredible 1,000-mile charity run.

Krueger ran alongside Benali for several miles, and was then at St Mary’s a few hours later with thousands of others to welcome him ‘back home’ to St Mary’s.

It was a heart-warming sight, the Saints chairman lending his support to a fans’ favourite.

Can you imagine that happening with Krueger’s predecessor, Nicola Cortese?

Cortese infamously banned Benali from St Mary’s after a row broke out – involving subsequent legal action – following the Cortese family’s renting of Benali’s property in Chilworth in 2009.

It would have been interesting to see what reception Cortese would have laid on for Benali had he done his charity run a couple of years earlier.

One presumes even he would have relaxed his stadium ban on Benali to let him run around the pitch ...

But would he have taken time out from his schedule to run alongside Benali?

Cortese was also involved in high-profile disputes with Benali’s great friend and fellow Saints legend, Matt Le Tissier.

Le Tissier was often highly critical of Cortese’s manner, and there was no love lost between the men.

How refreshing, therefore, to see today’s Echo back page story with quotes from Krueger saying how Le Tissier is now a ‘trusted friend’ of the club again.

Some sections of the fanbase always stood up for Cortese in his arguments with Benali and Le Tissier, claiming his ‘ruthless’ nature was the reason why Saints had gone from the foot of the third division to the top half of the Premier League within four marvellous years.

Their argument, strangely, was that you can’t afford to live in the past if you want to progress in the future.

I could never follow that line of thought.

Surely it was possible – is possible – to do both?

Surely a club can embrace its legends, make them feel welcome, and also concentrate on the present?

Lots of other clubs manage that supposed juggling act quite easily. It’s not difficult, after all.

Cortese’s manner won him few friends among those he dealt with, but in the eyes of many Saints fans he could do no wrong. League results, of course, are king.

But those supporters who backed Cortese blindly were wrong.

Legends like Le Tissier, Benali, Lawrie McMenemy and Mick Channon deserve to be made welcome whenever they want to turn up to watch a game.

It is because of people like them that Saints have a proud history of top flight football.

Long-standing fans love talking to characters like that, and it makes the club feel far more like the family one Saints were once so well known for.

Krueger, of course, will not be judged on how much he extends a warm hand of friendship to the club’s former greats.

He will be judged on the club’s current results.

But his support towards Benali, and his willingness to take Le Tissier back into the Saints ‘family’, will have earnt him some goodwill.

And sometimes little actions like those count for a lot.