Good post, sums up my thoughts exactly. I'm just hoping that all this is an elaborate part of Cortese's end game. If the Liebherrs do not match us in the ambition stakes I doubt that it would be a surprise revelation to him, therefore his comments regarding his ambitions for Saints would seem odd. We all struggled to understand Cortese's reluctance to accept the FFP rules, I wonder if this could be due to him seeing a new investor/owner on the horizon. Just a thought.
My thoughts on this appear to follow most of those already given on here. If the rumours/stories are true, then I suspect it is less to do with Cortese wanting a bigger pay packet, and more to do with the trust wanting a larger say in how the club is run and/or a disgareement between Cortese and the trust as to how much money will be available to spend over the summer. I think it is safe to say that Cortese will want substantial transfer funds, to match his ambitions. I do agree, and for a long time have, that Cortese probably has other contacts to potentially buy the club should the trust ever decide to pull out. But I'm not convinced this is a case of the trust wanting to pull out. After all, the multii-millions are just around the corner (even more so than they are now). After four years of hard work, three of them without Markus, why pull out with a bumber SKY deal on its way? Yes, if made a top dollar decent offer, I could see the trust selling up. But if all Cortese can manage it to find someone basically willing to pay market value for the club, then I'd be surprised to see the trust accept. And in that situation, unless Cortese is willing to back down and effectively give into the trust, then there will only be one winner here should the trust also not back down. My personal view, and I have nothing to support this, it is purely opinion, is that this is primarily to do with transfer funds and ultimately the trust will give Cortese the funds he wants.
A slightly more detailed perspective from the Press Association: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...cortese-considering-his-position-8614370.html
It's a contract negotiation. I would expect there to be disagreements, so not particularly worried. But if it came to it, I would be MUCH more worried if the club changed owners than if it changed chairman. Bad chairman=bad club. Bad owner= no club.
Disagree, the club is on sound financial footing, without further investment we may not move forward, but barring being taken over by someone like Tony Fernandes, the worst that would happen is we stay still. On the other hand, the whole culture of the club has been set by the board. Cortese's not the only one calling the shots, but he does play a major role.
Not necessarily. The worst that could happen is that our players' heads get turned, we fail to replace them adequately, and we end up back in the Championship. That's the one element of Cortese that may be irreplaceable: the players seem to believe that he can achieve his declared ambitions, and thus they have not been eager to move on. If he leaves because the trust wasn't willing to back said ambitions, players might be a little more intrigued by moves to bigger clubs.
It really wouldn't surprise me if the Liebherr's wanted to sell the club, Saints have probably been unofficially for sale ever since Markus died.
Pretty much, I'd likely agree. If they'd had a sizable offer, that was considered very good and offered a good return - for sure. Maybe now the club has retained its status as a Premier League club they see it as a good opportunity to sell up.
Can't see it I'm afraid, we appear to arrived at a very meaningful crossroads. If Cortese get's his way then further improvement and a shot at the upper echelon beckons, if no/little investment follows then our current league position is probably an accurate prediction of the next few years. Sorry if that sounds dramatic, but I really believe it to be the case. A while back I wrote a post saying; Although success and footballing fame were surely a motivator for Markus, we are probably a mere investment vehicle to the remaining Liebherr family, this seems to be bearing out. If you have no passion for football and Saints, why would you spend the kind of money Cortese is probably looking at spending this summer, when the new TV deal would mean you could start pulling some money back out. If a new Chairman was instated by the Lieberrs, who says their mandate would not be to start cashing in. Schneiderlin to Arsenal anyone? Sod that.
Yeah I would consider being back in the championship a set-back but not particularly regressing, considering where we have come from and how we've only spent one season in the top-flight. All our key players are on decent contracts now though, even without Cortese around and the 'vision' to entice them sign another one, it would take a special kind of incompetence to let them all go without some kind of backup plan. If some asset-stripper takes over, then yeah we're screwed, but there's no way that's going to happen.
Playing devils advocate, and looking at it from the Trust's perspective ... it is not unreasonable that they want control of their asset nor that they want to see a return on their investment. The current arrangements give Cortese the authority and position of owner, but like or not he isn't, he's an employee. But his plans for the club are about his own ambitions and ego, not the best interests of the Trust. He wants to roll the dice and shoot for the moon - but it's not his money and it's not his club. A public ultimatum via the press is going to have seriously pissed off his employers. The more I think about it, the more worried I get because I can only really only see one outcome from this. I don't think the Trust will want to sell at this stage unless they get a silly offer, and if they don't then I'm afraid it looks likely that Cortese is gone.
I'm not suggesting that it's a death sentence by any means, but losing the young core that we have now to the vultures is the sort of thing that isn't solved as simply as recycling their transfer fees.
That would really **** with my beautifully constructed Summer Transfer Thread. Lee Cattermole anyone?
This may lighten the mood - certainly made me chuckle: [video=youtube;75eBEWtd-Zo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75eBEWtd-Zo&feature=player_embedded[/video]
