trousers

£200k may well have been the starting price for Fonte but at that price there would have been many clubs interested and a bidding war would have ensued, doubtless pushing up the price to the level that Cortese paid, if not higher. By going straight in at the higher 'market price' Cortese would have stolen a march on other clubs who were interested. So, it was possibly / probably a shrewd move...

Good evening Mr White...

http://m.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/the-12-men-who-have-a-massive-influence-in-the-future-of-pompey-1-5818546

So, the journo in the studio said that he thought he knew who Peter White's source was and that it was a good reliable source, but he felt it was a story being manufactured / embellished by the Liebherr camp to generate interest from elsewhere. All good fun whatever the reality and the outcome.

Peter White said he first heard about Wang on Thursday. And... "My source has close connections with Southampton football club ( but doesn't work there ) and also with Dalian Wanda"

Talking about this on TalkSport now...

@bigadamsport: John Williams, former Blackburn chairman, born in Southampton, is a contender for chief exec role at #saintsfc - would be a top appointment

Jonathan Hofstetter?

@peterwhite_1: “@bigadamsport: I'm informed that Cortese-Chinese consortium #saintsfc takeover story is well wide of the mark”source mate? @bigadamsport: @peterwhite_1 different to yours obviously, but one I believed enough to tweet that - who was yours? @runtherainbow: @bigadamsport apparently common knowledge with the Sunseeker employees for some weeks source one of my business partner a with a Sunseker @bigadamsport: @runtherainbow well I may be wrong but told by people in contact with club's hierarchy that it's not been on agenda or discussed

Blackmore: "Hello Mr Cortese, Adam from the BBC here. Any truth in the rumour you're involved with this Wang fella in a bid to takeover Saints?" Cortese: "No." Blackmore: "Ok, thank you Mr Cortese. That's cleared that up. Bye".

In which case, the Daily Mail would surely be delighted to publish a story debunking the Mirror...?

Here's a theory (that I haven't really thought through, so could be my usual tosh).... IF Cortese was involved in a bid by Wang, COULD there be a reason why he would want to keep his involvement as secret as possible until the takeover was complete? The only reason I can think why he would need to maintain secrecy would be if he had had a really spectacular fallout with the Liebherrs and they have refused point blank to have any further dealings with him. So, for him to mastermind a comeback he would have to do it incognito. (Yes, I know that shoots down the common wisdom that the Liebherrs are rational business people and wouldn't let a clash of characters affect how they did business if the deal was right, and that it also contradicts the "I didn't want Cortese to leave" statement by Katharina, but...) So, what I'm getting around to saying is that the longer that Cortese's media mouthpieces (Ben Smith and Neil Ashton) don't latch onto the Wang story themselves then the more believable the story actually is. Think about it... why would the two journos who have been publishing Cortese 'exclusives' over the last few months not even mention this Wang story in passing? Even if it's complete fabrication you'd have thought that they would run an item along those lines, given they supposedly have Cortese at the end of the phone. IF the "Cortese + Wang" stories are true, I wouldn't expect anything to appear on the BBC (Ben Smith) and Daily Mail (Neil Ashton) websites any time soon. To repeat my question, why would two journos who have been writing story after story about Saints over the last few months not pick up on this one, if only to debunk it? Reverse psychology rules OK

It's an 'in joke' on here c.2009

Wang was on the South Coast on 30th August... http://www.wanda-group.com/2013/chairmannews_0902/447.html Did we have a home game around that time? Given his apparent love of football and the sunseeker partnership with the club it wouldn't be a surprise to have seen him in the director's box as part of his visit I guess...

True. The trouble is, the opposite could also be true. IF someone decided to fabricate a story like this and post it on here, it's impossible to tell the difference between that and a genuine story. Ergo, someone making up stuff can always hide behind the "if it doesn't happen it doesn't mean it was made up" line. That's why it's so easy to be a 'troll' on an Internet forum (not saying you are) - because it's easy to stay below the radar. I'm a benefit of the doubt kind of chap, so i'm happy to give this story some credence for now. My initial doubt on this thread came from your opening statement that you has posted about a Cortese meeting in London "a few months ago"... I searched for such a post and couldn't find it. What else am I supposed to do with the apparent absence of the post that you referred to other than raise it as a doubt? That's logical, surely? Maybe dig out the post to which you refer to dispel the doubt? If someone posts a genuine story then they ought to be happy for it to come under scrutiny rather than get defensive when scrutinised. After all, it's human nature to doubt something that appears 'too good to be true'. Anyway, as I say, I'm happy to give the benefit of the doubt at the moment as it's a valid theory regardless of where this 'story' was sourced from. Cheers

No. Quite a lot of people on here floated the possibility of a Cortese return on the day he announced his resignation. It's always been a valid theory.

@bigadamsport: Blimey .. Great story if true http://t.co/T0QmrwwBGA - if he is interested then sale would be a formality !

Yes, but my understanding is you can only enter one in each competition... (So, both couldn't play in the champions league if they both qualified for example)

And to those of us discussing it on this forum 2 days before MLT's thread...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2541893/Katharina-Liebherr-wants-vanish-Southampton-shes-limelight.html

Let me know when you want me to "do Groundhog Day" again

Maybe he'll stop repeating it doesn't matter whether or not he touched it when people stop repeating that he did touch it....

Given MotD didn't show the 'should have been a red' karate kick on Lallana last week (let alone debate it) I wouldn't hold your breath...