Yes I know I said I wouldn't come on here until after the World Cup. As I am due to fly to Brazil in just over a week I didn't want the negative news and posts to effect my mood even more then it has. As you can probably tell I am a very calm person. I haven't overreacted to all the news that has been coming out the last few days/weeks/months. Yes I can see why people have reacted the way they have, even if I feel they have gone a little crazy. Getting back on track, I have been thinking(yes I do think now and again ) about what is happening or happened at club. It's up to you how you view it, but this is view. Saints for the last years under Cortese have been a stable and well run club, yes I know we owe 27m in transfers but I don't see that as a big deal. The players loved it under Cortese and were united in all saying how ambitious the club is. We know Cortese was a very quiet person public wise, but had all the time in the world for our players. Since then as you all know things have changed Cortese has left and KL has become more of the face of her late fathers investment. Now we have the whole players aren't happy with the current board and want to leave because they don't have the same ambition etc. That has got me thinking, maybe the players were shown too much love by Cortese, with their every whim catered for. Now the new board come in and don't treat the players anything like Cortese did, putting a few of the players noses out of joint. It would tie in with some of the players disliking the board and showing it through the media. Maybe I am completely wrong but it's strange how it just seems the bigger players that have been showing signs of wanting to leave. Yes it doesn't help Krueger sounding like he does or how the board handles certain things, but I don't buy the whole "it's all the boards fault" crap. Hope you can understand my take on it and don't just have a rant,it's hard being dyslexic and all. That's try and keep this thread calm at least. So what do you guys think? (I will now go back to not posting until after the World Cup so hopefully we have a good one.)
Thanks for the post , Beefy. I think you coukd have a point but here is my take - maybe (without wanting to hijack your thread) we could ask people to state what they beleive is happening, rather than vent fury =- let's try to get the conspiracy theories going... Here is mine: Well, for what it is worth - I believe a number of items are disingenuously coming out in the press from various sources. This is no coincidence. Someone is trying to manufacture the sale of the club and doing it by means of disturbance from within (i.e. upsetting the players) and externally (upsetting the fans). For me - this is what all this is about...being sold/brought. I think we need to becareful what we wish for and who we blame. Currently, we have snippets of info from people being used as mouthpieces and that can be dangerous to the unknown.
Remember Nicola's BBC interview? One of the last questions he was asked was something along the lines of "can we expect to see you back in football again?" Nicola answered "Maybe" and smiled knowingly Let's keep our fingers crossed that my 2+2=4 is correct
If that's the case Dark Lord, let's also hope he comes riding back in before KL decides that it's more in her interests to sell Lallana/Shaw and the rest piece by piece. Know we can recover, but if we've got ambitions of driving on it'd be better to keep the majority of these pieces together if KL's selling up.
Will be interesting to see what clues (if any) Rickie Lambert gives us on Monday. Let's be honest, it is odd that Saints would want to sell him for as little as £4m (purely as we can't replace him for that figure) unless: a) we're either being sold off piece by piece, b) he's handed in a transfer request, c) he had a specific clause in his contract, or d) we're aiming even higher and decided he was one to go as his chances would be limited. I understand it's a bit of business that makes sense for both LFC & Rickie Lambert, but it's most definitely a very odd piece of business from our end, which is why we all hope that it's not option a)!!
If Katarina Liebherr is trying to sell the club and is trying to maximise the value by asset stripping first, then she needs a quick sale, as the value will decline if we go down next season. Plus at the same time there is a very big club very publicly on the market in Aston Villa. I'd also say that I don't necessarily buy the line about an owner getting more money by asset stripping before selling, as surely a club is more attractive if it still has top players.
Maybe hes hoping for a complete break down a sfc so Kl will beg him to come back and run the club on his terms...
When asked if he would come back to Southampton he said "never". EDIT: Sorry Ashby I missed your post, but it confirms what I heard.
Great post. do you think it could be down to the fact that there really is the opportunity to double their wages, get a big signing on fee, etc. Their agents will be in their ears saying your stock has never been higher and if Saints don't do as well next season they will fall off the radar off the Champs League clubs.
I would say the bigger players are the only ones showing signs of wanting to leave because they're generally the ones getting the attractive offers (Liverpool is unquestionably a more attractive move for Lambert or Lallana than Hull is for Fonte) but they aren't the only unhappy players. Cork and Fonte are also supposed to be unhappy with the board's lack of communication. On Cortese and the players I think you can spin that either way. If you're pro-Cortese and unconvinced by the new board then you can say Cortese was obviously doing an excellent job of engaging with the players and keeping them happy at Southampton. If you're not a Cortese fan then he was mollycoddling them and now the ungrateful pampered darlings are throwing their toys out of the pram.
Apart from being illegal, asset stripping just does not work when it's the owner that has built the club up in the first place. Selling Shaw for example only converts a book asset to a cash asset. It only really works with a state owned company or where you buy a company for next to nothing (because of large debts). NC did a fantastic job whilst he was here but with someone else's money so no surprise there was a parting of the ways. Similarly no surprise MP followed. If players feel so little loyalty they need to follow so be it. Most will wait to see the who the new manager is I suspect. If they have any sense they will see an opportunity to develop further under a new coach with new ideas. Apart from Rickie, I hope no other transfers take place before World Cup as the tournament will add about £5m to their value. And any world class replacements we buy post World Cup will probably more expensive for the same reason. I was thinking toward the end of last season that our young stars in the u21s are developing so fast there will be a log jam soon getting into the first team so losing 2 or 3 for big money over the summer is not disastrous but we do need a new striker as it is, in my view, asking too much of Gallagher to fill Rickie's boots from day 1. I'm sure that is why he featured so much last season; to assess his progress with that in mind. I'm a bit down like most people but I can still see an exciting season ahead- providing they get the appointment right!
KL may want to or need to sell a few players, but it will be because it is necessary for Saints...willing to bet it has nothing to do with asset stripping. If she wanted to make money, she would sell the club.
I doubt she is asset stripping but football clubs are often worth less than the sum of their parts. People have estimated the value of Southampton FC as £200m, which is possibly a little high if anything - Fulham, high value central London location and all, went for £150m not long ago. Yet if we sold Lambert, Lallana, Shaw and Osvaldo we'd be likely to bring in over £60m. You'd still have a load of relatively high value players like Lovren, Wanyama, Chambers, Rodriguez, Clyne and Schneiderlin on the books (I'd say at least another £80m worth there and that's probably a lowish estimate). That's at least £140m before you even consider the rest of the squad and the stadium, training ground etc.
What's low about these valuations of the club for me Puck is the guaranteed TV money c.£80m even if we did get relegated next season. For me we have Players as assets (£150-180m) + Stadium/Training Ground & Facilities (£30-60m) + Guaranteed TV Money including parachutes (c. £80m) = £260m to £320m
She will get more money if she sells the players separately, then sells the club. Other option she wants to maintain us as a low input low output PL club, making profit from regular player sales. Either way its depressing.
I doubt it. Who is going to buy a crap club with no players? The training ground is useless if the players aren't worth training, and the stadium is pointless if there aren't fans to support it. Mowgli is right. You asset strip an entity when the entity as a whole is worthless (ie bankrupt) but there are physical assets that can be sold. You declare bankruptcy and free yourself from any debts and the entity ceases to be. Then you sell the parts. Southampton doesn't have debts. And in fact it was the Liebherr's that paid them off. And invested in infrastructure and in players, etc. The time to asset strip it would have been right when ML bought it. Anyone who buys the club is going to want to run the club as an ongoing concern. Which means they want good players, and a stadium that supporters attend, and a nice training ground. Not a bunch of medical equipment and copy machines.
