Its a vital game at St Mary's on Saturday with Bournemouth travelling across the New Forest to play a Saints side looking to secure their Premier League safety with a win.

Ralph Hasenhuttl is good copy for the media in that he tells it like it is and doesn't try to dress things up a style that Saints fans appreciate, here we take a look at his thoughts ahead of the visit of the Cherries to St Mary's.

On the chance to secure safety…

"Now we are one win away from being safe and this is a fantastic situation we are in now."

"I think we did a good job so far, good developments. In the end, we deserved exactly the points we took so far. There are still part of the game we have to improve and still deficits we have to work on but the team showed they are now much better committed and with a better understanding of what is important to win games."

"So, we are in a good position, but we have not reached 40 points. I hope we will have it after this weekend."

Comment- Ralph is spot on, all the late goals mean there is some frustration in the points dropped but overall there aren't many Saints fans who are not happy with the position we are in compared when the Austrian took over.

Have there ever been any doubts about being able to reach that?

"No. If I thought we cannot do this I wouldn’t do the job."

"In the moment I made the decision to do this job, it was clear I trust my team and that we can stay in the league.
 The way was a very difficult one, but we invested a lot, my staff and the team in this club, to leave this negative track we were in and I think we have now the feeling that we are in a period where something is growing here and that is most important thing for everybody working in this club, that we see that we started to go on a journey that is going in the right direction and that is the most important thing for everybody."

Comment- Again Ralph is spot on, he has concentrated on putting things right in the foundations rather than try to plaster over the cracks with a panic buy in January.

Will there be a rebuild in the summer?

"At first we have to be safe and then we can think about the future."

"One thing is clear, if we are safe, we have to start in a different way next year, because it is not always possible to come from behind and then take the second half all the points you need. That’s a game that doesn’t work every time."

Comment- Im sure Ralph is aware of the shortcomings in the make up of the squad and will take actions in the summer, however it is right that he plays his cards and his thoughts close to his chest.

On Shane Long's contract situation...

"I think Shane is an important part of the team. As he said, he was not in the position to knock on my door, but now he showed the last four games the best arguments you have as a player is playing good games, and the performance not only because of the goals but his style and attitude is a good one."

"He’s a fantastic character every manager wants to have in his team and that’s the most important thing for him."

"It’s important he stays fit. He’s not the youngest guy, but he knows he now has to do more to get his body always in the right shape. He understands this now and this is the reason he develops his game also."

"We work very hard with him and show him very often the positions he has to be in to get more dangerous in front of the goal. 
You never stop learning. I played until 37-years-old and my last three, four, five years I learnt the most in my career. Keep on learning and then you never know what happens."

Comment - Shane Long has long been an unsung hero at St Mary's with some judging him purely on his goal scoring record, but he is far more than that and has played a big part since the turn of the year in our revival under Ralph and it is good to see the manager recognises that.

On Bournemouth...

"I think they had a very calm season, because they had a fantastic start and took immediately a lot of points.
 The second half of the season was not that good, but they have never been in trouble really this season. 
They have very young manager with a lot of games in the Premier League, a lot of experience and who has done a fantastic job."

"I know this is something like a derby against Bournemouth on the south coast, because they are not so far away from each other.

It’s a special game and for us it’s mainly a special game because we can make the last step. 
We are very motivated to make the last step in front of our crowd, it’s exactly what we wanted to have three games before the end and now we have the chance. We are very motivated."

"I think they are not so consistently good in this second part of the season, but they always show if you give them space and if you give them the chance to score they are very clinical and that’s the reason we must be very good organised."

"At home we must find a good game balance of playing in front but also being compact like against Wolves, a very good team, and the same is necessary against Bournemouth — find a good balance of playing forward, of having the ball or working against the ball, and, if we do, we have good automatism and good habits and we can create problems for every team."

Comment- Good to see Ralph appreciates the enormity of the game and is concentrating on what we need to do, if we do that then we can win the game and get the job done.

Photo: Action Images

BaselSaint added 09:04 - Apr 26 Great Guy Let's get it done. Onwards!
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SaintBrock added 13:52 - Apr 26 In some respects Hutch is in exactly the same position as the rest of us when it comes to summer trading. Only Gao really knows what the Club's ambition is. If it is only to stay in the PL and jog along mid-table then he and we can expect only for the current recruitment policy to continue with the main emphasis on developing young players from the Academy and only reluctantly bringing in a limited amount of new blood to supplement that. It is also all very well and good for fans to talk about a "summer clear-out" but Hutch cannot clear out players that have an asset value and a contract at the Club if nobody wants to buy them. As we have seen already very few clubs outside the top flight have the ready cash or willingness to buy multi-million pound price-tagged players who cannot even command a first team place at a struggling PL side. So it is not just a case of Hutch holding his own council, being cagey or indeed keeping his powder dry for the summer battles ahead. He is probably as much in the dark as we are about what happens next and Gao's intentions. We do not know even if Hutch as Kreuger's man has the full backing of the Gao for despite all the media hyperbole surrounding Ralph Hasenhüttl since he took over from Hughes fact is with three games to go we are still a poor team in a relegation battle and faring little better than this e around us. As for Shane Long surely the jury must still be out on whether hedeserves a one-year extension to his contract. A cynic might suggest that the sudden hike in his performance over the last three or four matches approaching the ending of his current contract is not entirely co-incidental. The Hutch Effect or the Exit Door Effect? That's for you to decide.

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