The Sunday Times: Saints up for sale

I must admit I agree with a lot of what mowgli says. My biggest worry with any change of ownership would be disruption of the board, and of the Southampton Way. We have an excellent manager who is being treated as the head of the club, even by the CEO, if Martin Semmens’ latest interviews are any guide. Everything at the club is geared towards producing the best possible first team, given the financial constrictions. I just worry that a new owner would want to bring their own people in, which might upset that equilibrium.

 

100%

We obviously have no idea what any new owner will have planned for us - but most people that spend £200m on something are going to want a degree of influence over proceedings.

However, it could go another way - if he has any understanding of football and can see the obvious improvment Ralph has made then you'd hope he would want to come in and support this further.

It really is impossible to know whether this would be good or bad for the club - just have to wait and see and get behind Ralph and the team until we know more!

 

It's certainly a potential concern that a new owner will change things, but the reality is that we're in an untenable situation. We're going to lose a lot of money this year. Gao likely doesn't have the money (and certainly doesn't have the inclination) to cover those losses. We have to be sold, and we just have to hope that the new owner has our best interests in mind.

 

I've seen prophesies of doom for our future ever since Cortese quit and we are still in a pretty stable position in the PL. I may well have my head in the sand but i'll start to worry at the appropriate time...que sera sera and all that.

 

If this guy does buy us, he's said he wants to replicate the City Football Group model with a main club in the PL and satellite clubs in Europe and South America.

If that's his plan, I'm not sure he'd want to completely overhaul what Ralph and Martin are building as he'll want us to be stable and survive for at least the first few seasons. And as someone else said, if he is smart, he wouldn't want to change anything yet.

You also have to consider that if this guy has to borrow money to buy us, and we've just borrowed £70m ourselves, it might not make financial sense to then fire everyone and pay off some contracts.

It's all completely unknown at this stage and no-one knows can't say if it will be good or bad.

 

I think Schad’s take on this is right. We have to find a new owner. That’s indisputable. It may not be the best of times for a bunch of upheaval and change, especially when we finally seem to have a direction, but it’s inevitable.
Ralph is now a big part of the club. He’s become so ingrained in it with his influence on decisions, his work with Crocker and Semmens and that he’s essentially designed the blueprint for coaching and recruitment at the club. Anyone buying is buying into what we’re doing now, that starts with Ralph. I’d hope they’d also see value in Crocker given his resume and history in youth development. Who knows?

 

I borrowed money to buy my house.

My old boss borrowed money to buy his business

That’s what happens.

 

If this guy does buy us, he's said he wants to replicate the City Football Group model with a main club in the PL and satellite clubs in Europe and South America.

If that's his plan, I'm not sure he'd want to completely overhaul what Ralph and Martin are building as he'll want us to be stable and survive for at least the first few seasons. And as someone else said, if he is smart, he wouldn't want to change anything yet.

You also have to consider that if this guy has to borrow money to buy us, and we've just borrowed £70m ourselves, it might not make financial sense to then fire everyone and pay off some contracts.

It's all completely unknown at this stage and no-one knows can't say if it will be good or bad.

Having to borrow isn't a bad thing. Quite normal actually, but borrowing to buy would suggest (to me anyway) that there wouldn't be the major overhaul which some are worried about because the owner won't have bundles of cash to spend. And if that is the case, surely they'd want to keep things stable/as they are now for a while.

However I also have no credentials or clue when it comes to running/buying a club.

 

This is it for me. We're currently a ticking timebomb with an owner who has never invested, who we know has been losing money on other investments and is now desperate to sell - and on top of all that, China-UK tensions are continuing to rise, especially in the sports investment market.

It's a leap of faith but we have to just hope we land with someone better than Gao.

 

Borrowing to buy does make sense. To use the house analogy, if you had £250k in the bank and wanted to buy a house for £250k, it may be worth putting down £150k and borrowing £100k so you have £100k to invest in it.

 

Especially if, as DaGrosa has been saying, you can buy an asset (SFC) at a cut-price due to COVID and invest in it and be sure that its value will rise once it comes out the other side of COVID, especially if you've reinforced the squad and are now sitting on a solid top 10/Europa challenger.

 

Interest rates in the USA are very low now, it is a great time to borrow. That assumes of course you don’t borrow so much you over leverage and aren’t prepared for things to get worse before they get better.

 

Let's face it. This guy is going to buy low, and sell high. Just as Warren Buffett does business.
The only way for him to make a profit is invest in the business, aka Southampton Fc. In my eyes that will only be good for the club.

 

I thought this was what the Leibherr family did.

 

Yeah, there isn't anything inherently evil about treating a football club as an asset. I wasn't fond of the end-stage of that plan, but the overall outlines (buying an undervalued club, and investing in it to turn it into a more robust asset) is nothing naughty.

Just so long as it's a cow to be milked rather than one to be slaughtered...

 

I totally agree with this.

To be honest, at this point in time there is not a great deal wrong with Saints. We are going in the right direction. There is no need to new "star" signings as we just need to improve the defence and buy a replacement for PEH. I think that the fringe players who are not part of any future plans will be loaned out or shifted off the books. the most negative thing at the moment is the sponsorship deal I which I feel is a mismatch for our identity. I am not happy with sport taking gambling's filthy lucre.

 

Has this been reported anywhere else other than the mail?

 

....yep the Not606 Saints forum. So it must be true

 

Yeah, I wouldn't be adverse to someone else stepping up in place of this guy (reviews of his tenure at Bordeaux are pretty mixed, to say the least), but I don't know how picky we can be.

 

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