Whatever happened to the new transparent era of open communication that was promised at Saints?

It’s only a matter of months since such bold statements were made as one regime was swept away to be replaced by another, and on the first big test it is failing.

Over the past few days the Daily Echo has been besieged by emails and calls from worried Saints fans desperate for news, good or bad, on exactly what is going at the club.

There are the two highest transfer offers the club have ever received on the table for two of their top players and a manager who could be on the verge of joining another club. Yet from St Mary’s emanates not a new era of open communication but a wall of silence.

Nobody expects to be told chapter and verse, there are sensitive business issues at stake, but this current lack of communication is almost unheard of, even for clubs who prefer to do things privately.

It’s not a case of feeling sorry for the media, they can do their own work, but the fans.

At the end of it all they are the ones that pay the wages and will turn up and support the club next season, regardless of who is there.

It is their club, and they deserve to at least be given a vague idea of what’s going on.

Premier League clubs rarely make too many public statements, but most will privately let members of the media know the inside story, which then gets passed on to fans.

It’s a way of influencing public opinion, of presenting yourself and your side of the story properly.

The current policy adopted by Saints, fairly or unfairly, gives an air that the club is being paralysed by naivety. It’s not a good look.

So who do we look to for guidance?

Ralph Krueger? He’s the front man, but does his role not extend too much further than that?

Gareth Rogers? He’s the chief executive, but does it turn out he only deals with the financial side of the business?

Les Reed? He has already trumpeted himself as the man dealing with all the football business, so what from him over these massive developments? Nothing.

Of course, if Saints manage to keep their manager and players then the criticism will be batted away.

If they lose one or, heaven forbid, more than one, they will have given the impression that they were fiddling while Rome burned.

Mauricio Pochettino’s contract is the perfect example. The Daily Echo revealed on Monday that a contract offer from Saints had been on the table for a while. What harm is there in the club having said that?

Despite being given the opportunity Saints aren’t talking about it at all – seemingly just desperately hoping it all works out well.

That feeling only intensifies when you consider Reed’s public statement of a few weeks back when he said the club were quite happy to wait until the summer.

Are they being played by Pochettino? Is he stalling just to see if he gets a better offer from elsewhere? How does that affect the potential transfers?

These are basic questions that can be answered, simply by confirming they offered a contract, and that would surely put forward the club’s viewpoint and only help them.

The current situation gives nobody any pleasure.

The fans want to know, they are worried, and understandably so.

This is such a seismic moment for the club that heads need to get unburied from the sand pretty quickly.

Saints and the new board are appearing to lose credibility with supporters.

What’s frustrating is that they do seem well intentioned and like nice guys, but they just are not delivering on their initial promises, and it’s starting to look really bad on them.