Southampton FC chairman Ralph Krueger on his future, Katharina Liebherr's interests and why some think Saints are is bigger than Man United

In the second part of his big interview with the Daily Echo, Krueger has revealed that the initial commitment he made to St Mary’s extends only to this summer, but that he has “loved” his time in charge and will discuss the possibility of remaining for longer.

• Ralph Kruger interview - part one >>

“My commitment to this club was through to the end of this season originally, and that’s where I stand at the moment, but we are in conversation about where that could go,” he said.

In this revealing Q&A with Daily Echo reporters Adam Leitch and Gordon Simpson, Krueger also discusses the possibility of a major pre-season tour beyond Europe, how Saints are viewed as a bigger club than Manchester United in some parts of the United States, and Liebherr’s plans for the future.

The inevitable question, with the new TV deal increasing the value of the club, is does Katharina Liebherr’s commitment to the club remain as strong?

“Her commitment has been the same since day one, and that’s when she asked me to become the chairman it was about really creating an excellent club, an excellent product, increasing the value of the brand, but less the value than creating something healthy.

“She is very, very happy with the development now.

“We had our staff party on Sunday – you might have caught wind of it, or seen some people go home a little later in Southampton.

“Katharina was in the middle of it and she was there from beginning to end and just loves being a part of the Saints family.

“She’s very comfortable with the role she has now in working together with the board and its direction.

“I see a lot of growth now in Katharina, which is beautiful.

“She really has found a comfort zone here now.

“The way it is today, she is pleased with everything.

“It’s what my job and role was, to make her comfortable with the club, and I think there was a lot of newness for her in the last year.

“Now she has entered a comfort zone and she has a real trust in the board now and the operational personalities that we have been able to bring together.”

It sounds like Katharina would really have no interest in selling, if she’s enjoying it that much?

Katharina Liebherr, centre, with Ralph Krueger, left and Les Reed, right.

“Well, that again has not been on the agenda – we don’t speak about that.

“At the moment, it is what it is, and it’s a club that she was given by her father, that she feels a responsibility for and she really cares about.

“I think that’s important for the people to know.

“She’s having a good time, she feels responsible to what happens to the club long term.

“I think that’s something really that gives everybody comfort.

“Katharina, and also the family – just the whole family is enjoying the development of the club.

“The Liebherr family in general behind her is sending her messages and they’re really excited about what’s evolved here.

“I mean, we were all a little uncertain a year ago about where this was going to go, so I think you have to be pleased.

“You have to live in the moment and you have to plan for the future, but you have to also remember where you’ve come from.

“We’ve come a long way very quickly, as far as stability’s concerned.

“There were storms and, if we were in a ship, there was wind and there were winds changing every single day – ones from the back, ones from the side.

“Now, at least, it gets windy once in a while, but we kind of know and we can feel a little more where it’s coming from. We have it under control now.”

Do you feel that you’ve moved past the legacy of the previous regime, and dealt with those issues?

“It takes one full year for this to become the norm, and we’re just now feeling people make that change.

“Everything was kind of not habitual.

“It was everybody trying to do things properly, but now I feel that there’s mechanisms in place where people are automated in a positive way.

“I don’t mean it like machines, but they’re trusting it now.

“When you have changes that dramatic, and multiple changes from March right through to August, at all levels and on all fronts, it’s normal that you have insecurities and you have uncertainties, but now we’ve had stability since then, and from September until now the people have been able to build trust in the way we’re operating.

“That staff party, with 420 people in there, was just very real and very honest and you could really touch the trueness and the openness of that whole [room].

“The players, their partners, the staff, their partners, the training ground people – you wouldn’t have known who was who.

“There was no difference between the players’ table and the next staff, and they were all in the middle of it.

“It wasn’t like the players in one corner. It was just everybody was integrated with each other.

“You get 420 people in a room like that, as a chairman, and you can feel that honest spirit in there.

“We had some dialogue with the audience, and people were up on the stage. There was dancing, of course, and everything else, but more than anything there was nothing fake or staged about the whole event, and you can’t force that. It was very real.

“I would trust you to walk through this entire stadium right now and ask any single person who was there and they’ll give you the same report, and that’s something that makes me happy as a chairman.

“A night like last night is as important for me as a win on the pitch, because that’s a win for our board to see that, and also the way the players are.

“We’ve got just a fantastic group. There’s no prima donnas in there, who didn’t want to do this.

“I don’t think every club in the Premier League would be able to throw a party like that and it be so natural – everybody spends at least six hours together. That’s quite a nice time, you know.”

You’ve been here for over a year now. What have you learned, how have you enjoyed it, and do you see being chairman as a long-term job for you?

“That’s a good question. I really came in here initially to help Katharina stabilise the club, without really knowing how long this journey was going to be, to tell you the truth.

“I think that what’s happened here is, number one, your question on the learning, you learn every single day in this job.

“Because every club’s unique, it’s irrelevant the sport.

“What you need to do is figure out what your opportunities and potential are, and then look and search for expanding those.

“We can’t compare ourselves to any other football club in the world.

“We are so unique in so many ways, as is every other club, and that’s something that’s fascinating to me, is getting to know what that uniqueness is, what our unique selling points are as a club and now trying to grow the brand.

“It’s become pretty all-encompassing actually, coming in here actually thinking more of being a chairman, but now my role is way less operative, with our excellent executive board that we have together, and I’m moving more into the global arena and figuring out the channels and the context we can have there, to really take Southampton to another level.

“That conversation with Katharina and myself, we originally came in here and planned to finish off the season and we will have conversations then about where and what and how my role would be with the club moving forward.

“My commitment to this club was through the end of this season originally, and that’s where I stand at the moment, but we are in conversation about where that could go.

“But I have loved it, and it’s swallowed me up much more than I expected.

“I told my wife I’d be coming here a few months to help stabilise the club and then go back to hockey, but it’s turned into a completely different journey, which I’ve really enjoyed.

“I just love working with the people here.

“Again, as a leader, you’re looking for vehicles where you can live your style of leadership and I just feel really comfortable in Southampton, with the people, and everything is very easy and I think they like the transparency, and the leadership style that we have now is that all people are equal, no question, within the club and then everybody just has different responsibility, and I think you understand what that means.

“It’s not ‘We are better, because we are in more control’. No, we’re all the same, the exact same level, on exactly the same plane.

“I have a huge responsibility looking out for Katharina’s interests here and I feel that responsibility every day, and I enjoy it, but I have an unbelievable support network in the club to help me manage that and I really trust the people I’m working with.”

Would you like to stay longer if the opportunity arose, if Katharina could convince you?

“Yeah, I mean I think that there’s long-term prospects here with the way the club’s evolving, but again we were so caught up in fixing that I’m actually surprised we’re already here in the middle of February.

“When the season began last summer there was so much to do that we never even spoke about it, but Katharina and I are going to have some good conversations here in the next while.”

You mentioned global opportunities. Could you expand on what you mean by that?

“What the fans of Southampton need to know is that, as popular as the big clubs are, there’s an anti movement out there in the world looking for freshness and newness, and in certain areas of the United States there’s people that think we’re a bigger club than Man United, because they’ve only been watching it on NBC, and NBC’s only had it two years.

“It is true. I’ve talked to the NBC people, who you know I have a good relationship with, to build on that documentary they did (NBC recently produced a documentary on Saints’ success and structure this season).

“They try to have fans rank us and stuff – they think we’re bigger!

“It’s funny how you can see how much of the world out there has only short-term been a part of the Premier League and it’s an unbelievable growing market.

“It’s just multiplying dramatically all the time.

“We’ve only been there a few years, but we’ve been there long enough and, for many, we’re very refreshing.

“We were speaking today about the opportunities in Japan, through the popularity of Maya [Yoshida].

Maya Yoshida takes on Chelsea's Eden Hazard

“We’re looking at the United States, and that NBC documentary, how that caught [people’s imaginations].

“Les Reed was sitting in a bar – he missed one game, because he was at a conference in Philadelphia – and he said that all the people were cheering for Southampton. It was just unbelievable. He didn’t know why, but everybody was cheering.

“Then he talked to some people and they said ‘Oh, we saw the documentary.’ “I think we have a unique selling point, in that our English spine, the story behind us, it’s dedication to youth development, growth, and I think it’s just nice right now to have somebody else break into the group.

“Whether we can sustain that or not, we don’t know. It’s going to be a really tough end stretch, but just to even be there right now in this position, if you look at that group around us, we’re an aberration for many and that gives us opportunity.

“It gives us opportunity, it’s piqued people’s interest.

“Conversations are getting easier and easier, but we aren’t looking for quick fixes.

“So the people we’re dealing with, we’re not looking for ‘Quickly, let’s get a sponsor for the rest of the year’ or ‘Quickly, for one year next year and make a lot of money’.

“We’re looking for partners who truly want to commit to Southampton long-term and those deals take time.

“So that’s why I say to you, 2016 is really who are the right people to be a part of this journey with us and we have huge, huge interest growing out there.

“It’s bubbling and I’m working those bubbles right now as much as I can.”

Does that mean you would potentially want to take the club further afield during pre-season this summer?

“We’re definitely looking at an option there. We’re looking at some options.

“It’s tough to put the perfect [one together].

“Number one will be the preparation of the club and Ronald’s preparation for the best possible start to the season.

“We saw how valuable that was to us this year, that we truly did everything possible to get a good start.

“So there are conversations right now to take the trip to possibly outside of Europe.

“Where exactly, we’ve got some options on the table, but they need to fit into the whole picture.

“So I would say in the next two or three weeks we would be able to give you a little more direction on that, but we are working on some options right now, because I think there’s some marketing opportunities off the tail end of what’s happening right now.

“It’s really interesting how much if you travel around and you go and you listen, people know about us now. Like, people know the name Southampton.

“Those standings being published every single day in every single newspaper in the whole world – there’s no better branding in the world than that.

“The Premier League standings show up in every single newspaper in the world. That’s something I didn’t realise until I was working here.

“It doesn’t matter where you go. You can open any newspaper anywhere in the world – I can open the Los Angeles Times or the New York Daily News or the International Herald Tribune, or in Germany the newspaper, and there’s the Premier League standings, and when your name is in that group that’s branding pure.

• Read part one of the Ralph Krueger interview >>

“You can’t buy that. You can’t pay enough for that. So that’s what’s happening in people’s heads, is that recognition, and then they hear the story.

“When you look at our budget compared to most of the clubs around us, it’s an outstanding job that everybody here’s been doing.”