Markus Liebherr completed his takeover of Southampton yesterday and immediately promised to repair the relationship between club and fans.

Supporters’ nerves have been frayed over the past fortnight — but also over four years of boardroom disarray that ended last season in administration, a ten-point deduction and relegation to Coca-Cola League One.

“I believe we have a superb opportunity to rebuild this great club,” Liebherr said. “Clearly, this will require resources, planning, hard work and patience. We will act rapidly, but also plan for the long term, because I am here for the long term. I also look forward to the club re-engaging with the fans and the local community.”

Liebherr, 61, was born in Germany and is a member of a wealthy Swiss-based business family who specialise in construction machinery, although he operates independently through his own group of companies, the Mali Group. Liebherr, who paid an estimated £13 million for the club, is understood to have personal wealth of €3 billion (£2.6 billion).

The Times understands that part of the attraction of the club to Liebherr, a deeply religious man, was that they were formed in 1885 by members of the St Mary’s Church of England Young Men’s Association, hence the “Saints” nickname.

Since Southampton Holdings plc went into administration in April, several rival consortiums have sprung up and fallen by the wayside. Some supporters have questioned why Mark Fry, the administrator, initially passed over Liebherr, an early bidder, awarding exclusivity instead to the Pinnacle Group, which boasted Matthew Le Tissier as a figurehead. That bid collapsed in a doomed attempt to overturn the ten-point deduction imposed by the Football League, which has approved Liebherr’s takeover.