Katharina Liebherr intends to appoint a full board of directors to oversee the running of Saints.

The club’s owner and new non-executive chairman wants to see the club and the soon to be appointed chief executive – Totton-born ex-Blackburn chairman John Williams is believed to be a front-runner for that role – are fully accountable.

Since the death of her father, Markus, former executive chairman Nicola Cortese was more or less in charge of everything at Saints.

Though he had an executive committee, he sat at the top of it and was understood to take the big decisions himself.

As owner, Liebherr is understood to have become increasingly uncomfortable with Cortese’s autonomy. She was hoping for a greater involvement in her club and to have at least one person on a board of directors to liaise with Cortese.

However, it is understood that that proved a major sticking point for Cortese who resigned last week.

Documents filed at Companies House show that the club and their parent company have moved quickly to terminate Cortese’s position and formally serve notice of Liebherr’s appointment.

The documents reveal little extra information about Liebherr, other than her date of birth which confirms she is 36-years-old.

One of the first jobs being undertaken is a detailed look at the club’s books.

Though Liebherr has of course had access to the accounts field with Companies House, she is believed to have not regularly seen the detailed internal breakdowns.

It will enable her and the team she is soon to put in place to get a grasp on the exact finances of the club.

Liebherr addressed staff at St Mary’s yesterday morning to assure them over the future and again confirmed that she is not here to seek an immediate sale of the club.

She spent the weekend conducting a number of interviews with potential chief executives ahead of a soon to be announced appointment.