I’m just going from memory here, but I’m sure I read something from around the time Kat was trying to find a buyer saying that she couldn’t put the money in needed to push the club forward and was looking for a buyer that could. Hence going through extensive talks with Gao that dragged on for >6months to make sure they were the people that could do what Kat couldn’t. I think it’s obvious since then, that Kat just wanted/needed to sell sooner rather than later and told the fans the ‘finding the right owners to progress the club’ bit to keep us on side.
I’m aware that wages etc would come from that, I’m just interested what happens to the rest of it. I’m not going to pretend I know much of anything about business, and so when someone who does know cough *Shad* cough breaks it down in layman’s terms, I’ll be interested to hear what happens to the rest of it.
I think she simply said she wanted somebody who could take the club forward. I think some people were just inferring that meant put money in. Whenever money was mentioned by Ralph and Les at least, they always said he wouldn't take money out and club would keep running as it is with no real change.
Yeah I mean, without finding what I read I can’t say money was definitely the word used, but I’d suggest it’s very difficult to ‘take the club forward’ by not spending some money. And with what we’ve seen or haven’t seen from Gao so far, I’m still pretty sure that Kats words were just sound bite for the fans. She just wanted out and Gao was her way out. Taking the club forward was never really a priority.
Forward in time. As in, as he is the owner of the club going forward, he will be taking the club forward. This is one of the things i meant by people were making inferences. They said from the very first statement it will be business as usual. They were trying to sound positive but i actually felt they were trying hard to control expectations and let people know there wouldnt be big investment.
They could have chosen to not use such misleading words if by take the club forward they simply meant, be the new owners. To say that you can’t take the club forward but you’re looking for the right person to take the club forward is a weird way to simply say the club will have new owners from now, into the future because I want/need to take my money out. Most fans have an emotional attachment to the club and will always take move the club forward as to mean progress the club. But I’m arguing about use of words here which is pretty pointless when I don’t know the exact words used and at this point, it doesn’t really matter. For the club to progress from here we need to dramatically improve our recruitment, and get recruitment right most of the time which is very difficult but necessary if you’re working under such self imposed constraints. Or, find new owners...cue LTL and his White Knight... There’s a lot of work to do in the summer regardless of what league we’re in.
A letter to the fans of Southampton Football Club from Katharina Liebherr... I am pleased to confirm that talks to bring in a new partner to our club have been concluded. Following extensive and fruitful work, we are entering into a partnership with the Gao family and I am excited about what we will achieve together. Today is the start of a new and exciting chapter for our club. Mr Jisheng Gao and his daughter, Mrs Nelly Gao, with whom I have built a close relationship, share our values and ambitions. As a team, we will strive to build upon the strong foundation that is in place towards sustainable long-term success. Mr Gao, Nelly and I have full trust in Ralph Krueger and his management team. We wholeheartedly support their plans to follow the Southampton Way in the years ahead. But for now it is business as usual at Southampton Football Club and we must allow everyone at the club to focus on the first few weeks of the new season. I would like to thank the passionate supporters of the club for their ongoing loyalty and faith, and I look forward to seeing you soon at St Mary's. We March On. Katharina Liebherr
No, its a completely normal way to say it. My company just got a new CEO and we have also been using all the same next chapter bollocks. Doesn't mean the guy is bringing a tonne of investment with him. Gao's not bankrolling us like some owners do, and he's not taking dividends out like others do, he's simply letting us run ourselves. I wouldn't really call that a restriction, It's what we've been doing since we got back in the premier league. No significant change, which has been the clubs line since the start. In fact, we were paying off debt to Kat which we've now finished doing i believe, so if it wasn;t for bad buys we would be in a better financial position now under Gao.
Indeed, it became more obvious when the club was actually bought that nothing would change with investment. The statement/quote that I was thinking of was before we were sold but when Kat was openly looking for buyers, it seemed that one of the main reasons Kat wanted to sell was because she couldn’t take the club any further and wanted to sell to someone that could.
Wolves have declared their accounts, a loss of £57m for the year and still spent over £100m on new players last summer
It's one of the issues with FFP in the FL: if you're going to go big, go really big and get out before the punishment can be levied. Wolves had potential risks of failing it, and their ownership group is a massive conglomerate with fingers in a lot of pies, so they seem willing to weather some significant losses to turn the club into a consistent PL side. And so far, so good on that score; guessing that the value of the club isn't far off what they paid plus the debt they've accrued since the purchase..
Yes, there is. $900k is not very much for an NHL head coach. If Krueger put his name out there, I doubt anyone would even try and offer him under $1m, he would not have any problems at all getting a job for $2 million and if all he cared about was money and he could get up to $4m. I mean, his name comes up every time a coach is fired and there is a vacancy. including just this week.
I'd be awfully surprised if teams were offering him a HC job straightaway. Hockey culture loves its Overly Committed types, and Ralph has walked away from the sport for quite a while now...it's been six years since he coached in the NHL, and he only had one season in charge as it was. Can certainly see him getting an assistant job, but a HC gig seems unlikely, rumours aside. $4m just isn't happening, though. That would make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the league.
He could consider a job outside sport....would probably prefer a job in an area he knows, but could look at a chief exec job elsewhere. Can't quite see him moving into coaching again.
I’m just interested to know why he stays at Saints. Is it just the money, does he have a passion for soccer, is there something else? And why do we retain him? I know literally nothing about the bloke, but he must bring something to the party?
That's the reason I don't join in on criticism of him...he's the chief executive, so hard for us to judge him as his responsibilities may not be obvious to us. The footballing side was in Les Reed's hands....Ralph's job was to support Les...who lest we forget had achieved a lot of success over the years. Ralph obviously has the trust of Katharina (and now for the moment of Gao). The books balance and we are in the black unlike some clubs. However, he did say that he would increase our earnings from elsewhere and that doesn't seem to have happened...probably because our weak performance on the pitch has lowered our profile.
