Ralph Hasenhuttl opens up on the 'important' Southampton dynamic with Sport Republic

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl says the club have adapted well to working with new owners Sport Republic.

The Saints changed ownership in January after Gao Jisheng's 80 per cent majority shareholding in the club was sold for £200million to Sport Republic, whose lead investor is Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak.

Rasmus Ankersen, former FC Midtjylland chairman and Brentford director of football, also came on board, while London-based investor Henrik Kraft was also brought in as part of the Sport Republic group investment.

Saints fans were hoping new owners would mean fresh investment in the playing squad and so far this summer that’s happened, with the club spending just over £50million so far on six new players including former Rangers midfielder Joe Aribo plus Manchester City duo Gavin Bazunu and Romeo Lavia.

That has been accomplished with the help of current Southampton CEO Martin Semmens and new head of senior recruitment Joe Shields, with Hasenhuttl also having a new team of coaches by his side for the upcoming season as the club goes through a rebuild from top to bottom.

Asked during his pre-match press conference on Thursday whether the club’s new owners had been involved in pre-season much, Hasenhuttl said: “Not so much for me but for Martin [Semmens]. He was a little bit more involved with Rasmus [Ankersen] and Henrik [Kraft] and Dragan [Solak] so this is a normal thing. Communication is good. We have still short ways of doing things - this is important I think. So far it has been a good adaptation.”

The first test of the season for the Saints is on Saturday when they start their Premier League campaign with a trip to Spurs. Hasenhuttl is likely to hand debuts to at least two, if not more, of his new