Southampton’s chairman, Ralph Krueger, has indicated the club will not pressure Ronald Koeman into extending his contract, which runs out next summer, or stand in the way of any player who wants to leave.
After the exodus of talent and the loss of Mauricio Pochettino to Tottenham in 2014, Southampton are determined to shed their image as a selling club but will not hold players against their will. Sadio Mané and Victor Wanyama have been linked with moves to wealthier clubs this summer, and Koeman has often been spoken of as the next Barcelona manager. The Dutchman admitted this week that it would be hard to turn down an offer from his former club.
Krueger said he enjoyed a positive relationship with Koeman, who has impressed since replacing Pochettino, but stressed any new deal needed to be right for both parties.
“Ronald Koeman’s conversations with us have been excellent,” Krueger, who was speaking at the unveiling of Southampton’s seven-year sponsorship deal with the kit manufacturer Under Armour, said. “We are philosophically exchanging continually. We are speaking and we are in a good place right now. Let’s just let that evolve. He still has more than a year on his contract so it’s not a point of pressure that we want to be unhealthy.
“We don’t want anybody to be here who doesn’t feel they can grow in the role that they have. That begins with our leader on the first team and that’s Ronald. If it’s right for him and it’s right for us and everybody finds a natural way, that’s going to be best for Southampton.
“We feel very comfortable in the position we’re in right now. It’s not important what I want, it’s important what’s the best for the club. We’re having a really good conversation and everything else we’ll see how it goes. What’s best for the club has two sides to it. That’s the manager’s side and the club’s side and if those fit perfectly then that’s the relationship we should have with the manager.”
Southampton made £88.5m from the sale of six players in 2014 and lost Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne to Manchester United and Liverpool respectively last year, when Toby Alderweireld signed for Tottenham after a productive loan spell at St Mary’s.
With United targeting Mané and Tottenham watching Wanyama, Southampton may have to be resilient again this summer. “All I know is that if you’re here at Southampton you’re at a club that is competitive,” Krueger, a Canada-born German, said. “If you like that, stay here. If you don’t, then probably this isn’t the club for you.
“You’re staying here no matter what? We did that with Morgan two summers ago. At that point it was a necessity. We had to stop the bleeding and Morgan understood and he was professional. Last summer maybe we had a few of those conversations and we would like those to end. We don’t want to be that kind of club. That whole ‘you have to stay’ thing, that’s eventually not going to be in the language. We want it to be a crazy decision to leave here but we have to earn that.
“The language is everybody wants to play here. And when a player doesn’t want to play here, we’re not the place to be. If a player doesn’t want to play here, maybe it’s not a cultural fit or an emotional fit or maybe this Southampton way is bollocks to him. See, I’m learning English.”
