FORMER Saints boss Dave Merrington believes Michael Wilde and his directors will be "judged quite harshly" if they fail to bring in new investment.

The Wilde camp strongly hinted at the possibility of new investment prior to taking over as they staged an ultimately successful PR campaign against former chairman Rupert Lowe last summer.

But after almost 200 days of Wilde and Co being in power at St Mary's, no new investors have so far agreed to plough money into the club.

And, with Saints still feeling the financial effects of relegation 20 months after it happened, that has placed some members of the PLC board under pressure to cash in on prize asset Gareth Bale this month.

Merrington told the Daily Echo: "I don't think we should be in the position whereby if we want some investment we have to sell our best players.

"If that's the case then the new board are no different to the previous one. Rupert Lowe must be sitting at home thinking this lot are no different to me'."

See today's Daily Echo for the full story