SAINTS chairman Ralph Krueger admits the Europa League will pose the club a difficult challenge this coming season – but he says any team that views the competition as a negative does not understand their own business.

Ronald Koeman’s side will begin their campaign in the third qualifying round next month, as a result of finishing seventh in last season’s top flight.

If they can get through that stage, they will face another two-legged play-off tie in order to reach the groups, which would mean a minimum of a further six matches.

Such additional demands means the competition is often a maligned one, with the perception being that it will negatively affect a side’s Premier League form.

Indeed, former Saints manager Graeme Souness said earlier this week that it definitely would.

Of course, it is not always true that teams go backwards when they enter the competition, but Krueger is not blind to the fact Saints will face a tricky balancing act.

Yet he believes the Europa League can actually help the club domestically, and insists they will fully embrace the experience.

Saints chairman Ralph Krueger is positive about the club's Europa League campaign

Describing it as a “huge accomplishment” for Saints to have reached this point, Krueger said: “We have a very large respect for the challenge, it won’t be easy – we know that.

“But we’re excited by the difficulty of it and we’re looking forward to the opportunity of growth that we will feel at all levels of the club.

“International competition, for everybody ever involved in sports, makes you better, so it will make us better for the Premier League and it will make us better for the cups we play.

“It won’t be easy, it’s going to be a tough season, but it’s going to be a lot of fun going after all these opportunities that we have.”

Krueger added: “For me, everything is in life about your attitude, and you can take situations in sports and always find weaknesses in them, but we just don’t work that way.

“Again, I want to underline, being in Europe will be tough, and you need to be much better organised, you need to be even more fit, you need to be a stronger unit, you need to manage all these things so much better, but that’s why we’re doing this.

“We’re doing this to play football. We’re an entertainment industry and we just earned more football games, so that’s why we’re here.

“So, any club out there that sees this as a negative, or as something that gets in the way of something else, is just not understanding what their business is.

“We love the opportunity. We’re going to take the Premier League just as serious, we’re going to take the cups just as serious.

“It just begins with Ronald’s attitude and his competitiveness to want to win every single match and play, and that’s where we’re going to remain, and just take it one step at a time is going to be important.”