Les Reed has spoken to the BBC of how the club are targeting playing in the Champions league within the next five years.

Reed who was acting as a mentor at Kick it Out's Raise Your Game conference, told BBC Sport:

"We'd like to think we have the structure to reach the Champions League in the next five years.

"But it's important to be established as a top-six club over that period."

"We seem to set some kind of record every year now. It's been a fantastic season.

"For us, we have proven we were not a flash in the pan in terms of the Premier League, we were eighth last year and we still think we can get a top-six finish.

"We also have some silverware with the under-21s winning the Premier League Cup, so we are still on an upward curve and we have plans to compete at this level for many years to come.

"I would be disappointed if we didn't make Europe this season, but we have set our own standards now and we are confident over the course of the coming years we will play in Europe and we are confident we are right to have an aspiration to play in the Champions League."

Good words from Reed backed up by a structure that is now being implemented efficiently rather than the scattergun approach employed by many Premier League football clubs.

It is good to see that Saints have set themselves goals and targets again that are both stretching and achievable, although Saints had a good shot at Champions league qualification this season, the reality is we are still way behind the current top four in many aspects and Les Reed is right when he says the first step is to establish ourselves as a top six side, previously it has been about jumping from mid table to top 4 with little in between, but this statement recognises the fact that solid foundations have to be built and success cannot come over night.

So a good positive statement from Reed that not only says the type of things that supporters want to hear and encourages them, but is backed up with just why we can achieve this.

Photo: Action Images

helpineedsomebody added 12:55 - Apr 29 would love too see the saints in the champions league in 5years but the 1st thing keep hold of the manager at all cost 2nd increase the capacity at st marys 3rd install a new retractable roof 4th install the same seats as the manager & staff/players sit on 5th put tv screens in the back of the seats then you can charge proper prices 6th the cost of getting to the champions league /200 million pounds good luck & thank you southampton football club for a fantastic season

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SanMarco added 13:36 - Apr 29 Nothing like a 5 year plan to get us all going. Surely if we go 8th then 6th then the next in the sequence is 4th...So no need to wait for 5 years.
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SaintNick added 13:38 - Apr 29 It is a lot harder to get from 6th to 4th than even 14th to 8th im afraid
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SonicBoom added 13:44 - Apr 29 I'm guessing you were having a laugh but if you are serious that you want to sit on a comfy seat, watching a tv screen under a roof then surely you can just stay at home ?
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SaintBrock added 14:29 - Apr 29 Hold onto your hats folks Les is in full flow bigging us up on the national stage. I could swallow the Clyne story earlier but this is laughable, for starters many of our current players will be too old in five years or fed up with waiting. If this issome weird form of political strategy heaven knows what he is playing at.
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BoondockSaint added 14:37 - Apr 29 Unfortunately it could have been this year if we had found a striker who could have knocked in a few goals, or our team show a bit of determination in February. You have to strike while the iron is hot. The Premier League is not the NFL or NHL where you can build one year to the next. As Koeman has said, in football, every year is a "rebuilding year". Hopefully we can at least hang on to the players that want to win with Saints.

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VancouverSaint added 15:35 - Apr 29 It's good practice to set business goals in whatever business you're in, including football. That way all employes know which way they are heading and should collectively work in a known direction. This may not suit some current team members who can't wait that long but our youth programme will benefit greatly. It should also hold firm the demand for season ticket holders which in turn should get management a timeframe for stadium expansion. Les R makes sense, and our past 5 year plan was even bettered, so why not this one. Revenue is increasing each year and to be a serious contender for Europe we have to attract a bigger, more talented squad to maintain the pressures of 50 - 60 games a year. I have been impressed in our management team in the last year plus, so no reason not to believe their future plans right now.

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VancouverSaint added 15:35 - Apr 29 It's good practice to set business goals in whatever business you're in, including football. That way all employes know which way they are heading and should collectively work in a known direction. This may not suit some current team members who can't wait that long but our youth programme will benefit greatly. It should also hold firm the demand for season ticket holders which in turn should get management a timeframe for stadium expansion. Les R makes sense, and our past 5 year plan was even bettered, so why not this one. Revenue is increasing each year and to be a serious contender for Europe we have to attract a bigger, more talented squad to maintain the pressures of 50 - 60 games a year. I have been impressed in our management team in the last year plus, so no reason not to believe their future plans right now.

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BarnetSaint added 08:11 - Apr 30 I agree with much of the above. But to realise our ambitions, in the short term we can't afford to have this annual cull of our better players. Every man and his dog gets linked with clyne and co, which unsettles the squad and fans alike. Spuds can tie Kane down to a long contract and there's not a single mention of him going anywhere. You can imagine if he was with us he would already be linked to the big bore 5! We do need to increase our profile and size of the club which means a stadium expansion. Yes we have a brilliant academy and we are trying to do it the right way. Here's hoping.

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SaintBrock added 10:30 - Apr 30 A vision must be realistic and backed up by a step-by-step time-frame road map of achievable intermediate goals that can be understood and targeted by everyone in the club. Motherhood and apple pie statements of good intentions in themselves are a waste of time - we all want a peaceful prosperous world where there is no war or hunger or homelessness! What makes this laughable is that Les seems to imagine that footballers understand management speak and will just sign their lives away in pursuit of one club's vision. Footballers ain't trained management professionals Les they are in the main working class kids of limited education and life experience and wouldn't know what a Vision Statement was if it etched into the windscreens of their Porsche's. Footballers are canon fodder to the likes of Les Reed, they come, they serve their usefulness and are then discarded. They know this, we know this, Les knows this; the so-called Loyalty Card is a fiction for both sides. Money is the only chat show in this game.

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