@JWTelegraph: Major upheaval also possible at Southampton. Cortese on the brink amid uncertainty over Liebherr family's plans http://t.co/OJ2BcnfU9W
Interesting that the Telegraph article suggests the trust want him to stay. Haven't noticed that in any of the other articles.
Not sure where you've got that from, "there is now significant uncertainty over whether the Liebherr family want Cortese to remain as chairman beyond this summer " seems to suggest the opposite to me.
I hope this is all summation and speculation. If the 'other' Liebherr's really don't share this vision, and as a result Cortese goes (and we get lumbered with a disinterested trust), we really will have problems ahead......
"Cortese wants renewed backing from the Liebherr family for his strategy going forward and, despite indications that they want him to continue, he has become frustrated at the lack of clarity on the future." It's not a huge deal and may not mean anything but it's something I don't think I've seen in any of the other articles.
But with season ticket renewals just around the corner, The Leibherrs will almost certainly want a swift conclusion to all this.
Do you think these sorts of rumours would have an impact on ST sales? We're in the Premiership next season, so I would expect sales to be healthy, with price the most important factor rather than who the chairman is. I may be wrong though.
Ok, I resisted jumping in and saying "rubbish" yesterday because that didn't go well on the Adkins sacked thread. This seems to be a story about the Liebherr family position rather than Cortese. Although they don't have any direct involvement, it's their money, so they certainly have the right to ask what is happening to it. Although this may be Markus's legacy, how much should it be funded by and for how long? After all, when they look at the balance sheet, they would notice that it's a lot of money at high risk, and they might be nervous about such investment going on forever. Plus the club clearly has high sale value. So a decision by the Liebherr's to sell the club would not shock me. Now, if it fell into the hands of another rich smiley man/woman, and the first thing they did was give Nicola a contract, then . I don't get any impression that Nicola is thinking of doing anything other than pressing on so it's not implausible even though there would be no personal link - one would just have to look at his record over the last three years. So hopefully these talks will be resolved as soon as possible, one way or the other. Selling the club, if it did happen, would take a long time, and presumably the trust would want Nicola to stay while it happened (or they would have to replace him). So there is still a long way to go before we get to Nicola actually leaving the club. Nicola takes personal responsibility for the performance of the club. I don't think he will walk away. These discussions are yet to happen so it's not panic time yet. If it really does go down that road, well it's a shame, but not the end of the club. At least it gives us something to worry about in the Summer.
Markus's dream was to see Saints in the Premiership. It makes me wonder if, now that has been achieved, the family are thinking of the future here, and their own position.
I wonder if the trust are interested in selling the club, whether NC would find another backer to buy the club off them - so he could continue in his role
The full vision was to be playing in the Champions League, may be a step too far for the family who are not soccer savy? Nicola still wants it to happen but is impotent if it is not funded properly.
My thoughts exactly earlier in this thread . Would not surprise me if he has buyers lined up .............
I think, unfortunately, the timings aren't right for this to happen. There's no way they'll sell now just as they're about to make huge money, but for Cortese it seems to be now or never.
Yep. Clear as mud. I'm not so sure. Football is an area the Liebherrs apparently know very little about and, Markus apart, had little interest in. If Cortese went then would they have any idea who to replace him with? Yes, the new Sky deal is about to kick in so there's a lot of potential income there and yes, the club is well-placed right now but a football club is a very high risk investment and the family must be aware that the club could easily be worth much less this time next year than it is now. I don't think they're actively looking to sell but if Cortese found someone else prepared to make a decent offer for the club it's not impossible they'd be happy to walk away with a tidy profit.
I may be barking completely up the wrong tree. But is this woman Markus' daughter? Catherine Liebherr, aged 26. Grandfather founded the Liebherr group (Hans Liebherr - father of Markus). Or maybe just one of the family. Anyway, she's involved in sport herself. In other related news the Liebherr Family renewed a deal with the International Table Tennis Federation in March 2013. https://infocus.credit-suisse.com/article/index.cfm?fuseaction=OpenArticle&aoid=123285&lang=en
