Matthew Le God

I think it is basically just a criminal record check at the moment. You would think however the first question should be... 1) Do the prospective owners exist? http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Portsmouth-were-brought-to-the-brink-of-extinction-by-a-mystery-Arab-owner-who-did-not-exist-article624799.html Really does make a mockery of the whole thing and quite pointless having them if they don't stop this happening. Neil Warnock's comments at the end of the article are also interesting.

BBC Radio Solent Twitter...

They can't go back and change the rules and then apply them retrospectively for something Charlton did in the summer. I think a lot of Charlton's debt were soft debt in the form of director loans.

They are easy to find if you are an attractive investment opportunity. Lots of rich people are still looking for clubs. But most clubs either don't have the fanbase size required or infrastructure to make it attractive and/or are burdened by debt. Saints already have good infrastructure in place, have a large fanbase and are debt free. If they were sold tomorrow they would be extremely attractive for another billionaire.

Read the later comments by Dan Roan on his twitter and you will see that is simply not the case. Someone asked him - Does that mean that Liebherr family will back out if promotion not achieved this season? Dan replied - No - but better players will leave if promotion missed again Which was obvious anyway, if Saints don't get promoted this season players like Lambert, Lallana, Schneiderlin and Fonte will leave. As Dan says, the funding will continue, however the team would need to be rebuilt. However if those four were sold, that would raise a lot of money and rebuilding shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully though it won't come to that and promotion happen this season. *fingers crossed* In any case, whenever the Liebherr's do sell up, it won't be to no-one. The club is now an even more attractive investment than it was when Markus brought it. Someone new would pick up the reigns, and there would be a queue of people willing to do so considering the clubs assets of the stadium, training ground, Jackson's farm, the academy, good squad, healthy sized fanbase and no debt what so ever.

He started in the last round vs Plymouth.

Yeah, having roughly the 22nd highest average attendance in England this season, whilst in the 3rd tier and being ranked 50th (and for a long time a lot lower) in the English pyramid is terrible!

This is an interesting read... http://www.sthelens.oxon.sch.uk/Geography/Downloads/Geopress%20Factsheets/Geo%20factsheets/149%20Greenfield%20v%20Brownfield%20-%20Sports%20stadia.pdf

2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 All averaged over 30k in a 32k stadium. Including the relegation season! None of these season saw much in the way of investment in the team to attract fans. Rory Delap remains the record signing! Which shows the "smaller" games also had big crowds and that the bigger games were limited by the 32k and segregation reducing capacity. The club was limited by the 32k between 2001 and 2005, they weren't struggling to reach it! If you didn't have a season ticket it was hard to get a ticket, if you didn't have a season ticket and weren't a member it was nigh on impossible to get a ticket and they sold out often a week of more before the game. Thankfully Nicola has more ambition for the club than you and has taken these figures in to account and stated the need for future expansion. He also has access to the ticketing database to have an idea of how many unique purchases of Saints fans there have been.

Saints were getting over 30k attendances vs the smaller Premier League teams between 2001 and 2005 Saints have got crowds of over 30k vs Championship and even some League One games since 2005 For attractive fixtures in the Premier League they got easily get significantly more than 32k. If over 50k were willing to travel to London for a small final like the JPT vs Carlisle, then a lot of them would also turn up for matches on their doorstep with little traveling required and cheaper tickets vs Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Everton, Newcastle in the world's biggest League! I'd argue a Premier League game at home vs the big 5 (Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal) is more attractive than a Wembley final in the JPT.

So you think Saints could only get a maximum of 29,000 home fans vs Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Man City, Man Utd, Aston Villa, Everton, Newcastle for a top flight game? Yet can similar to that for a League One game vs Leeds and on boxing day vs Exeter?

Anyone else planning on going tomorrow night?

But if St Mary's can't be increased due to traffic problems surely it makes sense to relocate rather than let the stadium hold back the club as it tries to progress. Yes, I'd like a stadium in the city, however if this isn't feasible then I'd quite happily accept a relocation (within reason) that allows the club to compete at the highest possible level. Within the next 10 -20 years, a 32k stadium won't be in the top 20 largest stadiums in the top flight. Many other clubs have plans for expansion, Saints need to keep up!

What makes you think there won't be investment in the team should they be promoted to the Championship? Everything coming from Cortese at the moment "suggests" that there will be. You don't have a 5 year plan to be established in the Prem without investing in the team to get them there. I would imagine close to £5 million has already been spent (bar wages) on Saints as a League One team (transfers, agent fees, signing on fees, loan payment fees for Papa Waigo and Do Prado etc etc). Not many teams in the Championship, let alone League One can match that. In fact Saints more than likely beat a lot of Championship sides to the signatures of a number of players despite being in a lower league.

It must be Nick! (or it must be the fact I research for a computer game, that is the argument that many start using against me)

Did you not notice people staying away from a club lacking investment and Rupert Lowe back in charge. The game straight after Rupert Lowe left saw over 27,000 turn up.

It wouldn't need many players added to the Saints squad. The Norwich and Leeds squads haven't changed much over the summer and they currently sit 7th and 8th after 15 games.

It is actually £16m season one £16m season two £8m season three £8m season four But as I said... - most teams that will come down from the Premier League are already heavily burdened with debt. Saints are debt free. - most teams that will come down from the Premier League will have huge wage bills and may have many players on large wages that they can't shift If for example - Wigan come down, they already are getting average crowds of 15k in the Premier League, a return to the 2nd tier and they will drop off even further. - West Ham have huge debts still and relegation would be a massive blow. - Blackpool, average crowds of 15k in the Premier League, will be much lower in the Championship - Bolton currently averaging 20k which is fewer in the Premier League than Saints are in League One. A relegation will see this slide even further. - West Brom, Blackburn, Fulham, Birmingham all playing Prem matches week in week out, YET are all only averaging very slightly higher than Saints in the 3rd tier.

They don't get the £48 million in one go. It is spread out over 4 years and will largely go to the Premier League level wages some of their players may still have. Many of the clubs coming down will also have debts to finance, Saints are debt free. You only need to look at the Championship and the average gates of the teams to see Saints will be in the top two or three for match day income should they be in the Championship for the 2011/12 season. There really isn't much money in the Championship clubs atm and should Saints be promoted they will be a "big fish" financially.

You have become a little confused. NickG said that the Echo need Saints for their circulation. He didn't in that post say that Saints need coverage in the Echo, nor did he say huge numbers of Saints fans read the Echo for Saints news. All he said was that the Echo's circulation is dependant on people reading about Saints and buying the paper for that reason. It is the 21st Century, lots of other ways across a multitude of media outlets to follow the club than just the local paper.

The Liebherr's, since Markus' father Hans Liebherr started in business back in the 1940's, don't accrue debt. It is pretty much a family policy. Any new stadium or expansion of St Mary's may well be paid for upfront, it isn't money lost as it adds value to the business and provides additional revenue sources.

When he was at Plymouth he did have a good record. At Saints he never got the chance to take penalties/free kicks with a number of players ahead of him in the queue.

Now confirmed... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/o/oxford_utd/9168737.stm http://www.oufc.co.uk/page/News/0,,10342~2212871,00.html

On twitter...

I doubt Nicola would want to say anything to a BBC correspondent that the family would disagree with. The family haven't questioned the clubs public statement in August about the plans continuing unaffected. If they disagreed they could quite easily refute it, yet 3 months later they still haven't. Suggests to me it is true!