CHIEF SPORTS writer Adam Leitch evaluates what impact the threat of Mauricio Pochettino may have on the Liebherrs as they evaluate whether or not to keep Nicola Cortese.

We may very soon discover whether or not the Liebherrs are the kind of people who respond to pressure or instead know their own minds and simply make cold and calculated business decisions.

With the natural break in Saints chairman Nicola Cortese’s contract being reached and no sign of a new deal to keep him at St Mary’s having been forthcoming, as well as future plans apparently not yet agreed upon, we heard the news earlier in the week that he may walk away.

It appears that did nothing to hurry the Liebherrs into extending his stay.

Now we have Mauricio Pochettino suggesting he could quit the club if the man who appointed him, and of whom he speaks so glowingly, Mr Cortese, isn’t kept on.

Aside from the fact that fans will no doubt be unhappy to hear their manager pledging his allegiance to an individual rather than to the club, it is an interesting little addition to the mix.

He might well be prepared to follow through on his threat, but the cynics will inevitably wonder if this is an act of desperation and an attempt to whip up some mass public hysteria to force the Liebherrs into a decision they have so far not taken.

That Cortese hasn’t walked away yet over disagreements over club ambitions could be telling. Perhaps this all suggests that he wants to find a way to stay on whatever the future for Saints – and you could hardly blame him given his success and the millions he is earning out of the club.

The Liebherrs of course sit many miles away, atop a vast multi-billion euro business empire of which Southampton Football Club is a very small part.

Whether they will respond to this, whether they are even paying attention, remains to be seen.

There is no suggestion their commitment to the club is under threat, and as such they might well be quite happy with their decision, whether that is to keep Cortese, or let him go.

If they are going to pay to keep the players, and maybe even expand the squad, then they may already have a new chairman, lined up to take the club forward, and if the manager is that wedded to Cortese then might view his threat as collateral damage.

Ironically of course if they did let Cortese go it would be the same cold and calculated business decision the man himself has been famed for and took just five months ago when he replaced Nigel Adkins with Pochettino.