Southampton CEO, Phil Parsons has opened up in an interview to discuss his role at Southampton among various additional things.
Parsons was appointed as Saints’ Chief Executive Officer in June following 15 years with technology company, Dyson.
His role at the club sees him review all aspects of the club’s strategy. He works closely with Sport Republic and is on the Board of Directors at Southampton FC.
He joined following the clubs’ relegation in their first season under new owners, Sport Republic.
As a result of relegation, revenue from TV Deals and other streams is lessened and as a result, changes had to be made by Parsons.
What has Phil Parsons said?
Relegation from the Premier League would have a huge impact on any team’s revenue and this often poses a problem.
Discussing the change in revenue, Parsons said: “Immediately, for us, we lost about 50 per cent of our revenue following relegation. For any business, that is huge.
“We had to make some tough decisions on certain redundancies and roles and we have had to scale back.”
In spite of these cutbacks, Parsons’ aim is to keep the football side of the business going well.
On the football, he said: “We’ve got a squad with actually quite ‘healthy’ wages against other squads today.”
With that being said, the CEO wasn’t oblivious to changes: “The obvious question that you want to ask is about how we sold a lot of players.
“There are fees to pay and you will typically only get the money over three seasons.”
He added that these don’t solve everything: “It doesn’t suddenly cover the drop from the Premier League, even including the parachute payments.”
There were several incoming and outgoings over the summer but Saints fans were overall positive about the window.
Parsons doesn’t want a mass exodus: “It’s not something that we want to sell players.
“We will sell when we need to and if it’s the right money, as we proved this summer.”
It all sounds positive from the new man and Saints fans can be happy right now, with the general running off the pitch.
Parsons finished, saying: “It’s my job to make sure this club has a sustainable future.”