Southampton City Council sign agreement with Saints to develop St Mary's and Itchen Riverside

Yeah. Cortese with a bucketload of cash would have been fun.

 

It's a fairly pointless discussion now but I never quite knew what to make of the Gao stuff. I mean, yeah there's a good chance he was and still is sketchy as **** but I don't think I'd trust any conviction in China. I seriously doubt the Chinese justice system is particularly honest or reliable and I'm sure the Chinese government is quite happy to make up (or threaten to make up) charges to get people to do what they want.

 

Yeah as I said last night the whole thing basically hinges on the Cemex site imo as it always has done. Can't see a way forward without that.

 

Take your point but if they were doing that then they wouldn't have needed him to get to his co-defendant though surely? They'd have just gone directly to him.

Pretty pointless now though as you say. I just find it bizarre when he's spoken about as some potential saviour who was just unlucky when all evidence suggests otherwise.

Tbh I'm looking forward to the day we get the full story on the LD Sports fiasco. Still can't get over the ridiculousness of that.

 

Meh, from rumours I've heard he was heamoragging money at the club at an unsustainable level which was partly one of the reasons why Kat wanted to wrestle back control.

Never got quite got the NC love to be honest. Did a good job on the field, but was an irresponsible arsehole off it from what I've heard.

 

Rather annoyingly I cannot find the LD sports website now. I'm pretty sure I checked it about a year ago and it still had pictures of our (old) players.

Has to be the dodgiest sponsorship deal ever

 

If you're interested mate here's an article about his takeover from 2017 which I came across while looking for the LD Sports site - https://chinasportsinsider.com/2017/08/21/gao-jisheng-southampton-what-fans-can-expect/


An extract:


Finally, what of Gao Jisheng himself? His background is certainly another question mark. In summary, he was caught paying bribes in order to win state contracts, but, in return for immunity, he became a witness for the prosecution, with his testimony leading to the execution of two officials. This bribery issue initially led the Premier League – not exactly known for its strenuous checks of potential owners – to block Lander’s bid for the club, but it appears that was overturned on legal grounds because Gao’s deal meant he was not technically convicted of any offense. As a direct consequence of this outcome, the Premier League voted to approve tougher ownership rules in case something like this ever arose in the future.

In other words, the Premier League did everything it could to stop Gao buying Southampton – but he bought the club anyway. What’s more, all 20 clubs – i.e. including Southampton – approved these new ownership rules, further calling into question the inviolable Liebherr-Gao bond.

While you can explain away Gao’s background by arguing that paying bribes is simply the cost of doing business in China (at least until the government’s anti-corruption drive kicked into high gear last year), and that the fact that two people died was completely out of his hands, how many Southampton fans can truly say this sounds like a man they want running their club?

 

Exactly .

People bang on about ML saving the club , but it was NC who brought the club to his attention , and it was HIS money Cortese was spending .

 

Jesus

 

Winning, you say? Wtf is winning?

 

Well that's the point isn't it? He was spending more money than the club itself could support and Kat wouldn't or couldn't put money into the club. If Cortese was backed by money from the Qatari royal family the amount we spent really be an issue.

The reason Cortese is well-liked seems obvious to me. Over the course of 4 or 5 years he took the club from -10 points in League One to challenging for Europe. Sure, that rise was funded by Markus Liebherr's money but you only have to look at our current situation and owners to see that having an owner prepared to spend some money doesn't guarantee success.

So what? The money still has to be spent well. Good staff have to be recruited etc etc. Our current board are spending Dragan Solak's money and generally spending it quite badly.

 

Yeah that's true. There could be some reason for it I suppose but there's no point speculating. Ultimately he was a useless owner.

And, unpopular as this opinion may be, so was Katharina Liebherr. I'm fairly sure she didn't want to own a football club, she certainly didn't want to put money into the club and then she sold us to Gao.

 

Think you’ve answered your own question there, he did well on the field. SR are smashing it off the field and loads hate them because of what is happening on the field, ultimately that’s all most people care about

 

Yeah, I sort of agree with all that. We have no idea what Gao's intentions were, so all we can say is that he didn't put any money in, he didn't take any out. Kat only took her own money out, which she was entitled to do, but she was pretty unsentimental about bailing. Both did little to advance the club, but we can't say either of them tried to have us over.

I'd rather have the present owners tbh, it seems they still have a lot to learn but at least they are prepared to invest.

 

I think you’ve forgotten what winning means
It means winning AT THE ENDOF THE GAME

 

Genuine question, but why? I get they've spent more than Gao but look what they spent it on. An open wallet on the likes of BBD and Sulemana doesn't make me think they're good owners

 

This is a brilliant subterfuge. Release this information, and now hardly anyone is talking about the best manager in the Premier League.

Mind you that might change Sunday evening, although at my age I'll be in bed by the time the fourth goal goes in.

 

It's a good point to be fair, although Cortese wasn't the owner as such (as SR are), and was an employee more like the likes of Semmens and Reed. Guess the equivalent now would be Parsons spending lots of money that SR couldn't afford.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the current regime both on and off field, but that's another story

 

I wouldn't agree that they're smashing it off the field myself but it's subjective of course.

 

Simple. SR have made bad decisions - especially about managers - but that may change. They may learn from their mistakes and/or appoint people who improve performance on the pitch.

Gao and Kat either couldn't or wouldn't spend money and that wasn't ever going to change, which is why we'd been in decline as a team for years before SR took over.