We know that Nicola agreed to stay once he had met with Katharina so they must have come to some sort of amicable agreement about the direction in which the club is going. We have heard often enough of Nicola's ambitions so do you think Katharina now shares those ambitions too or do you think Nicola has had to rein them in a little to fit in with Katharina's possibly limited ambitions? If you think they are still the same and having seen last nights Champions League final what does Nicola need to now do if we are to achieve his ambitions for our club and what sort of time frame should he realistically work to?
My guess was that Nicola was just posturing to show he might walk away without saying so directly. KL must like/respect him more than some think or she would have said good riddance and sold the club. She probably didn't like the look of some of the figures...after all we must have made a loss the last couple of seasons. He has explained his plans and what he needs and she has rubberstamped it. The main issue I am sure was Nicola wanted to be in sole charge as he was under his 4-yr contract...presumably that has been put in his new contract (I wonder how long that is!). I bet the money he has to play with is more than you'd realistically think, but less than you hoped.
I think now the club is making a profit she wants to start getting some return on her dad's investment and start taking some amount of money from the club and I think he's just bought himself some time before she starts doing that. Maybe in future someone else will takeover or Cortese will leave, but for the next five years maybe, things will continue according to his plans.
Never wanted to lose Nicola, but it would have been amusing on one level if she said okay, buzz off. I bet that hasn't happened to him too often in his life.
My gut feeling is that this will end with a buy out ( Cortese behind he scenes ) , how long , nobody knows but I am sure KL will make a pretty penny or two when the sale goes through...............
This has been my feeling, I reckon it will be at least a couple of years yet before it happens. Can anyone confirm whether it was KL that was sat next to Cortese at the last game with her child in a Saints shirts?
The Top 4 Champions league era began in 2002 with Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester Utd & Newcastle qualifying. 11 years on and Chelsea & Manchester City are the only sides to offer consistent champions league football and the level of investment behind them is well publicised. Everton & Spurs are the only others to have broken through and they're big clubs with rich histories. Spurs may not have had a huge spending spree but they've not been shy to spend a bob or two over recent years. I think we could have a transfer budget to rival Tottenham, but will we or can we rival the wage budget? It's going to be tough to break the top 8 and I believe it will take over 5 years of consistent improvement to be a Europa league contender with even a sniff of Champions league qualification.
Yes, the little blond lad is Nicola's...only allowed to come occasionally because of all the swearing. I don't think the woman was Katerina...i'm sure she is prettier.
There's probably 2 people who know what has been said/promised and I don't fancy getting an answer out of either. All I know is that I'm glad it's sorted for a while to come.
I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have much to talk about if we only discussed what we knew as fact, especially with Cortese at the helm.
In truth we will need to get slightly bigger gates if we are to rival the likes of Tottenham in turn over. As for the larger wage bill we will be able to match most other teams by adding a few more thousand to our weekly gates. A regular house of between 35/38000 should make us more than competitive with most teams. Currently for most of the top ten visitors we do not have the capacity for the demand. So reality is we have to attract and expand at the same time. Late this year early next I expect planning to go in to expand St Mary's. Pipe dream...... I hope not..... it is though, the only way we will progress.
I think they will announce expansion during next season to either start at the end of the season or the season after. I suspect it was this that was what the 2 had difference of opinion on rather than the actual club as it is.
There were supposed to be two issues: Cortese keeping full control and signing off on the future budget. Perhaps Katharina was unhappy about bad press and the turmoil it represented and/or wanted more money extracted from the club. Not arguing with that...it is a business after all. Nicola probably got both...promised that money spent now would be a good investment for the future. He says he sets targets for people and expects them kept...I bet Katharina set him a target this time.
I think a lot of the time when you google Katharina, you get pictures of Christina Liebherr, her cousin.
