SAINTS chairman Henrik Kraft named the DNA of the club as “youth development, excellence in the academy, bringing top talent through and giving people a chance”.

Sport Republic co-founder Kraft, who is the current interim Saints CEO until a new appointment is made, will continue to serve as the club’s chairman even after major organisational changes.

Sport Republic have a new office overlooking the main training pitch at Staplewood Campus as they intend to be closer to the action, while their newly installed leadership team runs the club.

Kraft, as chairman of the board on which Dragan Solak and Rasmus Ankersen also sit, is in theory the closest link between Sport Republic and the club.

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‘The Southampton Way’ was a mantra popularised under Markus Liebherr and Nicola Cortese but largely came to represent punching above one’s weight and everything else the club represents.

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“I think ‘The Southampton Way’ probably means different things to different people,” Kraft told the Daily Echo, asked if it remains something profound to the club’s bosses.

“I guess we’re not too hung up on slogans whereas what the DNA of the club is, is more important to us.

“The DNA of the club is very much around youth development, excellence in the academy, bringing top talent through and giving people a chance.”

He added: “I think that resonates with everything we have tried to do and will try to do, we’re not afraid to take risks. When you give a young player a chance, that’s taking a risk.

“There’s another slogan at Southampton which I like better and that is ‘be brave’. That’s really what we’re trying to maintain.

“That whole nature of the club combined with the amazing infrastructure we have here is what has attracted us to the club, I don’t think any of that has changed.”

Saints became known nationwide as a producer of world-class talents, with the likes of Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana and James Ward-Prowse coming through the Southampton ranks since the turn of the millennium.

But the last 10 years have been barren and that is something that the club would like to change if it is to preserve its reputation.

Kraft has watched along as a young B team has won their league title while many of those also reached the FA Youth Cup semi-final this season, going on to make debuts.

Daily Echo:

Sam Amo-Ameyaw became the club’s youngest-ever Premier League debutant on the final day of the season, while Dom Ballard and Kami Doyle also featured in the run-in.

There is no shortage of talent and potential in the under-18 age group but Kraft explained that Sport Republic felt there was a deficit of real top quality in the 19-21 bracket and recruited to fix that.

“There was a specific gap for whatever reason and I think the signings that have been made have been targeted to fill that gap,” Kraft said.

“You look at the players coming through now, it’s very exciting. We have had debuts from a number of very young players this season.

“I think Sam was actually the youngest and he came on and showed why, obviously Dom we have seen a couple of times this season and Kami Doyle in the game before.

“There’s some great players coming through and we won the B team division with basically an under-18s team, a very young team that won that. A tremendous achievement.”