If Saints want to keep Ronald Koeman beyond the current term of his contract then they need to show that they have the same ambition as the Dutchman.

With Ronald Koeman half way through his contract talk is all about whether the Saints manager will stay with the club beyond his current deal that is due to end in the summer of 2017.

Koeman himself is playing down speculation that has been stirred up in the past week in the Daily Echo.

When asked about his future and whether it would be about the club's ambition whether he would stay or not he replied.

“Of course. It’s all about ambition and we will speak about it.

“Still I think it’s too early for that.

“We have to focus on the football side but of course my future in the club is depending the future what the club can do and what the club likes to go forward.

“It’s all about ambition because I hate to stay in a situation there is no ambition.

“Until now, today, the club is showing that ambition and if it continues like that and the club continue like that, and the possibility is to grow and to spend, then of course it will have a big influence in my decision to stay or not to stay.”

But despite what some quarters would like to twist the story into, it is not just about money and spending it on big transfers that will help Koeman decide his future with the club, it is very easy to equate ambition with the amount of money spent on transfers, but it is far more complex than that.

Koeman himself knows the football industry more than most, he like any manager would like as much money to spend as he possibly can, but he is aware that there are many clubs who have suffered catastrophic financial problems due to spending beyond their means.

“What I mentioned the club is doing everything what we can,” he said.

“That’s about maybe for next season and to grow and to bring better players in and still more competition and to grow as a team. Also in different parts of the club the club is growing. “There is much more people in the club working and that needs time. It’s not for today and tomorrow.

“It needs time in five or six years, but of course they need to show that ambition and that’s what I mentioned before that will be a big influence on the decision.”

Koeman's words perhaps show that for him ambition is about having a strategy over a period of time and sticking to that strategy, money was spent in the summer in replacing the two key players who left, indeed Saints spent fractionally more than the £37 million they received for Schneiderlin & Clyne, although it would have been significantly more by the time agents fees etc were added.

Saints problem and it will be one that will never go away is that when they sell a player to a big club and replace him, they firstly will struggle to get a player to replace him of the same quality or at least the same quality immediately, logically it stands that if Saints sell say Schneiderlin for £25 million, firstly if they could find the same quality for the same price, then that player himself would be looking to sign for a club bigger than Saints and for money far in excess than Saints could afford, this is a sad fact of life in football.

So Saints have to follow a path that sees them finding talent that has the potential to become great, as they have done not only for the past 8 years or so, but indeed since the days of Ted Bates.

That talent will take time to blossom, some fans give stick to Jordy Clasie and Cedric Soares and it is true they are still coming to terms with the Premier League, but that is no different to the two players who departed in the summer.

Nathaniel Clyne was awful in his first months in the club and indeed in his second season as far from an automatic selection with the emerging Calum Chambers, Morgan Schneiderlin was usually a regular for Saints and was linked with the likes of Arsenal from his early days, but it was not till the summer of 2014 some six years after his arrival that Saints started receiving serious offers as well as ones from Tottenham Hotspur.

So this perhaps suggests that club's like Saints will always have an existence that will see good seasons punctuated with the odd poor season, the trick is to make the poor season a 10th place finish rather than 15th.

This is perhaps where Saints are at the moment they are in a little transition where new players are finding their feet, but the clue to where Saints lie is where we stand in the table at the moment, we are 12th and that is more down to individual error than the quality of the squad, as players like Clasie & Romeu get better so will results. Indeed Koeman himself said he was happy with the squad he had compiled at the start of the season, that squad like any squad in football can be improved though.

I said at the start of the season that 10 th represents progress and ambition and I still stand by that, as Ronald Koeman said it needs time to build a club and we have to recognise that and realise that the path will not always be smooth.

But in saying this it is time for the club to show their ambition, they are not keen in doing business in January transfer windows due to inflated prices, but moving forward they need to show Koeman that they have the strategy that he wants and that they are willing to invest in the squad.

Photo: Action Images

ericofarabia added 10:07 - Jan 2 Can't see any progress on The Wanyama talks either, if the club can't ensure the manager is going to stay.
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1teeminants added 10:28 - Jan 2 It would be nice to hear something from the board. All very quiet.
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Rednose added 10:30 - Jan 2 RK is constantly linked with a move to the Dutch National squad and always will be all the time he's doing a good job with us. The circus doesn't ever seem to go away nowadays. Departures for our outstanding players, managers, even talent spotters etc don't ever seem to subside. The interesting thing though is with the great players that have moved on and please correct me if I'm wrong, none of them have continued to make the headlines for the right reasons. Poor old MS has been laid into by the Manc fans recently, via social network, regarding a recent loss and he wasn't even playing! We have two and of course the Manager being spoken about at the moment. RK will always answer a question, so the press can spin anything he say's. It's a shame that football speculation has become a sport within a sport, driven by people that are elevated within their industry by the amount of provocation they can achieve. So I always end my stint on Southampton newsnow with the Ugly, just to get a better balance of reason. Have a great new year all saints fans and remember just because we are paranoid it doesn't mean they're not out there to get our players. Saints to win today 1-2.

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SaintNick added 10:46 - Jan 2 We want our board to get on with things quietly not releasing statements, when they have done its been a rod for their back, they have said no one will be sold in the January transfer window, what more can be said. Koeman does not seem to be at odds with the board from any of his comments this season, although some have tried to twist his words to suggest that he is
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sholingred added 11:05 - Jan 2 I know some people never liked Cortese but in my opinion our ambition went when he left,thats why Pochitino left and most of our players the club changed direction,take the right back situation two England fullbacks sold and replaced with poor players,even Yoshida having to play there,The budget now is of a bottom four club with money in and money spent ,We had a great chance to push on but to me there seems something wrong in the club when every good player we have is trying to leave,we have sold nearly an entire team last two seasons,no other premier league club in history has done that ffs, I will always be grateful to the Marcus for saving us,but if his daughter is going to tread water in this league,it will catch up with us eventually ,prefer if she sold up and let an owner with a project takeover,Make no mistake Koeman will not sign contract if this continues,before all the bed wetters start this is my opinion and I have been going every season since 1974 and all the hard work we have done getting here wasted.

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helpineedsomebody added 12:28 - Jan 2 1 he is the best manager this club has ever had 2 he has said he is very happy at the club 3 when the new epl contract is anounced & each club gets 250 million pounds per season every epl manager will be on 8million pounds per season . like he says a good contract makes players stay plus what club in europe will be able to afford that. 4 the system that he plays is perfect for this club all he needs is better quilty players & for the players hes got just relax for gods sake 5 for the last 5 seasons the staff the players get paid asmall fortune now its time forthe surporters to be giving something better seats better food a bigger stadium & a new roof put on the cost small change when you are recieving hundreds of millions pounds per season so come on tubby get your purse out

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saintsnutcase added 12:38 - Jan 2 We have lost our two most important players to long term injuries -- Rodrigues and Forster. (OK Schneiderlin was equally important.) That's unlucky. If they return to full fitness next season, we will improve a lot.
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IanRC added 17:00 - Jan 2 Having just watched the Norwich game I now for the first time Start to question whether the manager is up to it. A very poor performance, Wanyama must have a screw lose, Clasie again at fault for a goal! Bertrand a shadow of his former self and the manager drops our best player by a long way for being late to a meeting. Punish the player by all means but do the supporters and the whole club have to suffer. If we can't beat a tepid Norwich who are we looking to pick up points against. Really poor start to 2016 by the manager and team.

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