Daily Echo piece with Solak here - 2,000 words: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/2...terview-southampton-owner-opens-sale-rumours/
I must admit I do like Dragan; I just wish he'd unshackle himself from the wider SR group and own us outright personally. I did agree with a lot of what he said, in particular his criticism of Martin & Juric being so set in their ways got me As ever though, actions will speak louder than words.
Some good bits in there - one of them is his summary when asked to give his version of events on the takeover rumours from Simon Jordan: "There is no truth in that rumour. I guess somebody was interested in investing in British football. Then they probably had the idea of relegated clubs, they might be in trouble. And then Southampton is a prime place, it's a traditional great club. "They sent me a message and asked, 'Would you like to sell?' And I said, no. They said, 'But yeah, we would like to do this', blah, blah, blah. "I told them, 'Guys, if you have anything serious, send me a letter explaining your intentions - I am not 100 per cent against having a partner'. If you share the vision, if you share the view on how we would like the club to develop, then we can allow somebody to invest alongside me. "But I just took a firm position that I'm not selling the club, and then, from there on, I never thought for a second about selling the club. "There were quite a few enquiries, and this is a good thing. Southampton is considered to be a great club and a good investment. But whatever they think of Southampton, I think five times higher. I love the club and have no intention of parting with Southampton anytime soon."
Solak on fan perception of Sport Republic and his thoughts on potentially leaving Saints: "It's obvious that some of the fans might think that Sport Republic have so far failed - it could be true - but unfortunately for them, I still love the club. "I'm going to stay for a while, but honestly, if I at any point truly believe that I am the problem for the club, I will put the club up for sale. "I really cherish the loyalty of the supporters, I cherish their love for the club, and I'm not going to be the guy who is killing the day for them. "I'm never going to leave the club in financial trouble, and the business of the club will be much better than before Sport Republic came."
I'll read the whole thing later (and can post here if people want) but from the snippets I've read, it all sounds great. But, it always sounds pretty good. It is so easy to say the right thing, putting it into action is the difficult bit they keep failing at.
There have been plenty of problems with SR, no denying that, but Solak isn't one of them. He's been let down by people around him that supposedly had more football knowledge. Solak clearly has formed a big attachment to the club, he's pumping money into the club and the area surrounding the stadium - if the plans to develop St Mary's come to fruition it will be incredible. Now we have replaced Wilcox properly (not doing that sooner is probably his only criticism from me) I expect better results on the field. This new era with Spors and Still excites me.
Good interview... ...though if the SR model is going to work for Saints then this should be the season we find out. We have plenty of players who would benefit Goztepe if we cant shift them elsewhere, a couple of youngsters who would benefit from a loan to Valenciennes, a striker at Goztepe who on the face of things would make a tremendous addition to us and Sanda, Matsuki and probably to a lesser extent, Juan, who have all benefited from the SR relationships in some way and ready for the first team squad, fingers crossed
Very interesting comments about the development of the clubs non-football revenue and the stadium area: With Solak's investment in the playing team and staff at Saints limited by Profit and Sustainability Rules, he is looking to bolster their business. Saints have signed a memorandum of understanding with Southampton City Council to explore the potential redevelopment of the St Mary's area. By increasing their revenue, Saints can directly invest more funds into transfer fees and wages, but Solak is keeping his cards close to his chest. "I'm extremely superstitious and usually when you talk about business projects too much in advance, they never happen," he quipped. "Their vision is that the football club is very important for the city, and they want to help us to help them create a better environment for everybody." "We are developing now together this master plan that looks wonderful and will include changes on the capacity of the stadium and facilities around." "Everything is heavily scrutinised because we have to invest hundreds of millions, and we're not going to throw that around without being sure." "But the plans are grand, and if we manage to do it, it will significantly increase the revenue and the substance and sustainability of the club." "It will not all be about relying on the television rights in the Premier League, but we will have a lot of other commercial revenues and improve the area." "We are moving in a steady direction. We invested already a lot of money, we never took one penny out, and this is to continue, I can assure you."
A few comments that I caught from the interview with Adam Blackmore, was:- **** Var. Chinese recipe for turning a socialist policy into a capitalist profit. And **** Lincolnsaint, although he might have worded it differently when he said something about some being disappointed that he wasn’t selling.
