Ross Wilson’s departure has given Saints the perfect opportunity to complete their fresh start.

Wilson quit his role as director of football operations at St Mary’s to move north of the border to Rangers.

While to some this was seen as a dark day for Saints and further proof that the club is slipping backwards, those in power at St Mary’s were more relaxed about the situation.

It gives them the ideal chance to complete a vital and fairly major restructure at the higher echelons of Saints which those leading the club believe will help them return to bigger and better things.

The past year may not have felt too bumpy behind the scenes but a quick analysis of what has happened suggests there has been serious change.

It was only 11 months ago that Les Reed, the vice chairman and the man who had led the football side of the club since 2010, departed, along with Martin Hunter who was pivotal in setting structure for the academy set-up.

Chairman Ralph Krueger left shortly before the end of last season and now Wilson, who stepped in to fill the void left by Reed’s departure, has gone too.

In that time Martin Semmens has taken over as the club’s CEO, there have been board restructures that appear to have the owner, Gao Jisheng, and his family taking more oversight.

There has also been a reshuffle on the football side of things as well to try and provide more clearly defined department heads rather than one overarching power figure as Reed was at Saints.

Wilson’s exit means that Saints can really complete that overhaul by appointing a fresh face from outside that brings a new perspective to what they are looking for in this slightly adapted culture.

The role will very much be focused on the scouting and recruitment aspect of the club, especially around the first team.

Saints want a player trading expert to come in and do some serious work on the first team squad without having to worry about oversight of other areas of the club and leaving the admin and paperwork to somebody else.

It makes sense in as much as the downtown turn in success of their recruitment has left Saints in a vulnerable situation, and the only way they are going to turn things around is by unpicking that piece by piece.

That will not be an easy or a quick job. We have already seen how hard it is to try and shift players signed for big fees and on huge contracts who don’t impress.

Saints have mainly ended up punting them out on loan just so it’s a case of out of sight and out of mind, but the whole time you do that they are not off the balance sheet, and so that is another potential signing that cannot be made.

If you accept that after a sustained period of struggle the only way Saints are really going to get back to being upwardly mobile and seriously challenging in the top half of the Premier League table again is to overhaul their first team squad then the importance of the role becomes even clearer.

It has been interesting in all of this that there have been points made about the new appointment supporting Ralph Hasenhuttl and his vision for the squad.

As the first strains of pressure begin to weigh on the Austrian’s shoulders after a poorer than hoped start to his first full season in charge, the language sounds like deliberate and marked support. The manager’s role is one that Saints certainly don’t want to be rushing to overhaul.

Hasenhuttl’s vision for Saints and their transfer policy will be to try and get back to what worked so well when they picked out gems, and generally younger players, making their first or second moves, to whom coming to St Mary’s is career progress.

That inevitably means having to accept that Saints are a steppingstone club, because those players by their very nature are looking to make a name for themselves in the Premier League in order to move to a bigger club again.

But while those sorts of things grated in the past as countless players trotted out the door, often to Liverpool, the alternative, it turns out, is even more unpalatable. That is, you sign players that nobody else wants, and the reason nobody wants them is because they aren’t doing that good a job for you.

While from the outside it is difficult to assess exactly who did what, in a general sense Reed and Wilson had successes in the transfer market, but it has just felt that something has gone slightly awry more recently – Carrillo, Lemina, Hoedt and Elyounoussi are just a few examples.

A realignment of strategy throughout the club is taking place under Semmens and the football side cannot be left alone for fear of being seen to interfere if Saints are to bring back happier times to St Mary’s.