SOUTHAMPTON IN CRISIS?

As Nicola Cortese slalomed his way across the ski runs in the exclusive mountain resort of Lech over New Year, Southampton's executive chairman knew it would be all downhill.
In his path was Katharina Liebherr, the heiress to the £3billion fortune left to her on trust by her father Markus after his sudden death in August 2010.
The story has picked up speed since his return, gathering momentum as Liebherr's daughter continued with her bid for power behind the scenes at St Mary's.

On Wednesday night, just after 7pm she won, but the fear is that Southampton will be the biggest losers.
Cortese had tolerated Katharina until she refused to allow him to continue in his executive role without interference.
The Italian, a banker by profession, established The Southampton Way when Markus Liebherr took the club out of administration in 2009. He lived and breathed Southampton.
Each day, when he walked up the main staircase at St Mary's and headed towards his office suite, he passed a mural on the wall which reminded his staff of their ambition.
Katharina, who has no experience of running a football club and until recently had little interest in the sport, will run the show from now on.
Katharina has been in London this week, spending much of her time in the offices of her lawyers Allen & Overy.
She will be non-executive chairman of the club and intends to appoint a chief executive to handle Southampton's affairs. The transition will not be easy.
Southampton are a thriving Premier League club, the good news story as a succession of homegrown players make their way into the first team.
One of Southampton’s academy recruits is Cortese’s son, while his wife is also heavily involved in some of the club’s community projects.
This week's events have been bubbling since last summer, when Katharina arrived unexpectedly at the club's pre-season training camp in the stunning Alpine setting of Velden, Austria.
It was on the banks of Lake Worthersee, on the decking of the Seespitz Restaurant on the evening of Wednesday July 24, that she made her first serious demands to be involved in the day-to-day running of the club.
Until that moment Cortese had held her at arm's length as he went about the business of establishing Southampton as a force again in the Barclays Premier League.
It was Cortese who decided to fire Alan Pardew in August 2010 and replace him with Nigel Adkins.
Southampton won two successive promotions before Mauricio Pochettino, who was discovered by Cortese during a scouting mission to Espanyol for a player two years ago, was brought in on January 18 last year.
Between them they convinced raw academy graduates such as Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers and James Ward-Prowse to remain at Southampton, even when they had better offers elsewhere.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2540218/Liebherr-dream-wrecker-How-3bn-heiress-whos-never-shown-football-ousted-man-Saints-fans-believe-again.html#ixzz2qYkH0MPJ
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