AK

I don’t know why everyone is saying it’s £75m. If the figures in the press are correct we get £63m (Celtic get 10%) with possibly a further £4.5m to follow .Still a lot but it’s not £75m.

I was told-not from the horses mouth but from someone who claimed to be ITK - that if we had less than a point per game by Christmas he’d be gone. No idea if it’s true sounds plausible, but so would a lot of other statements.

I live near VVD and have met him a couple of times and can confirm that is his own car ! Not the LFC chauffered limo! Never been ITK before apart from when I said on here years ago we'd signed Dele Alli as I was told by a then high ranking Saints official but he got confused and it turned out to be Puncheon.

Yes that's a fair point and is obviously part of the plan but it rarely happens effectively, the wide players should swap every now then so they can attack their fullback on the outside this would also prevent the full backs having to continually make 100 metre sprints only never to receive the ball. Sometimes I think Redmond ignores Bertrand on purpose.

This is exactly how I see it.

Whoops!

Selling Sterling has to be the best bit of business Liverpool have done recently.

Let me know if you want it back.

Wow-loved that ,but lot harder than it needed to be. As good as Yoshida and Stephens are on the ground they are both weak in the air or at least not strong enough.Bearing that in mind we have to react better to loose balls in and around the box. Only player that disappointed today imo was Redmond. Some could have been better but for me NR was poor today. Nonetheless loved it, refreshing change from last season in excitement terms.

Thanks!

Must be old or dense what does AWM stand for?looking forward to the match was on holiday last week. Ps put my tickets on ticket exchange last week , my friends said they were used ,anyone know how Saints sort out the refund ?

That's fair enough if you don't believe the article.Personally I'm inclined to think it has a chance of being broadly correct. Interesting that it actually names the bank, not surprising it doesn't name a confidential source. Can't think why Bloomberg would bother to fabricate such an article either. I would expect RK to be positive about Gao as he's his boss now. Fair enough you don't want to raise any questions until you see the accounts . I think Saints year end is June but I could be wrong and can't be arsed to check. That means the first full year trading under the new ownership will be June 18 to June 19 which means we won't see those accounts until April 2020. I think it's ok to be a little cautious but I can also appreciate that not every one thinks the same and it's more than reasonable to think we now could be in a better position than we ever have been. As we all keep saying time will tell.

Ok I don't know why it's in The Times and not the tabloids but I'm basing my opinion on the Bloomberg article, which is normally reliable for financial info. I'm not complaining about no further money for the window. I was happy the way we were. I'm just keen to know how this will effect the club.if everything stays as it has been I'll be happy top half,decent football,odd excursion to Europe. It's not about when the backers will want a return but , how will it be funded, would we have to sell a player every year to make the repayments? I've no idea but I think it's fair to say there will need to be repayments. If he'd bought the club with his own cash we'd effectively be in the same position as we were with Kat so that would be fine, but we effectively ( not literally) have a 200m debt which we didn't have last week. You are of course correct my concerns are based upon a piece of journalism , so potentially groundless. But I'd still like to know more ,but I appreciate it's their business not mine so there isn't any obligation for them to tell.Although I would have thought they might have issued a more substantive statement ( not about the nitty gritty of the finance) about their vision for The Club on completion. Time will tell, like all the rumours whether on managers,players or owners we get to find out in the end I suppose! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-17/new-southampton-owner-is-said-to-get-loan-from-china-backed-bank

I don't know why reasoned debate is so frowned upon here, I feel I'm wasting my time replying. Some people might like more info on how the takeover helps Saints because , Gao has borrowed the money to buy the shares ( from a Chinese government backed bank in HK).That debt will require interest and capital repayments.Who is going to make those payments? Gao presumably, is he going to take the money out of Saints to make these payments or will he make them from other funds? That's a reasonable question for supporters to discuss,on a message board. As obviously it could have a financial impact on the club. Second point would be ,were the shares now owned by Gao offered as security for the deal? That could also effect us in the future if he defaulted on the loan. Hopefully over the next few weeks the new owners will issue a bit of info on how they see the future unfolding.

Maybe they will develop the area but I wouldn't have thought that's why he's bought the club - i don't think he's a con man, just not sure what he brings to the table. I would have happily carried on as we were. Top half team looking to get into Europe every now and then. But nothing stays the same forever.

The club doesn't own any land apart from the stadium, how would paying 220m for saints help ?

While it is obvious correct not to rush to judgement it is also naive to think that because we've been told it's good news it is. The Gao family have not communicated directly with us so the only information we have that seems reliable is in the article in The Times and the article from Bloomberg. From those articles we now know that money has been raised from a Chinese National Bank based in Hong Long and private overseas investors-that money won't come cheap and will need to be repaid. We know from The Times,rather unsurprisingly, the backers are demanding a return on their investment-last week we didn't have to make these extra payments so I can't see how we are anything else but worse off. The club is effectively,not literally, saddled with £200m worth of debt, this has to be repaid and will cost around £30m a year to repay in capital and interest I would have thought . If the club has just borrowed the money from the bank it would have the benefit of spending the funds on players,staff,equipment,infrastructure etc but it hasn't so it will responsible for generating the income for the repayments but without having the benefit of the actual loan. I fail to see how this is good for us fans. Also I can't quite get my head around the obvious contradiction that this is all for the good of the club to help us go to the next level whilst at the same time being told everything remains the same. I think this change in ownership should be welcomed but with caution until we know more. It could be the best thing that has ever happened to us but on the information currently available,I can't work out how.

I met Hugo a couple of times, seems like a really good guy. Looked him up on twitter a few months ago and anybody that thinks we live in enlightened times should read some of the abuse he got ( maybe still gets ) from saints fans for being gay. I still follow him but rarely can be arsed to look at my feed , in case you are wondering ! Normally just look at it on match days to get the Solent post match interviews.

Well that might be true but he's borrowed the money from a Chinese State owned bank based in Hong Kong.

I missed that, good spot, but it could just be a translation issue. If say he's taken a 10 year loan which has to be amortised to zero over the course of the loan - i.e. paid off like a repayment mortgage- that will require circa £30m a year to fund the loan-that's a big chunk of change out of the transfer budget.

A little bit more info here, seems like he has borrowed the purchase funds, rather than use his own cash. I wonder how much money ,if any , he'll have to take out of the club, to service the debt. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-17/new-southampton-owner-is-said-to-get-loan-from-china-backed-bank

Phew I had a dream we sold them-glad to know they are still here.

Schmidt pre China. I assume

My source has confirmed it won't be announced before 10.00pm today. However don't rule out after 10.00pm going forwards. I can't tell you anything else , lives are at risk if I do.

That ties in with what I've been told. Though I cant say its definitely today or tomorrow. I am 100% assured it wasn't yesterday.