saintant

So he can sack the idiots running the club? What's he waiting for.

Just read this on the internet; As of 2024, Southampton FC is owned by St Mary’s Football Group Ltd., which is 100% owned by Sport Republic (80%) and Katharina Liebherr (20%). Sport Republic acquired the club in January 2022, purchasing the 80% stake previously held by the Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng for approximately £100 million. So SR paid £100 million for 80% of the club and Katharina Liebherr owns the other 20%. That's quite straight forward but what share if any does Solak own? This is the confusion for me because he seems to put money in but doesn't seem to own any shares in the club.

But it was Martin Semmens who presided over the take over by SR surely?

This is the bit that I just can't get my head round - SR own the club but Solak puts the money in. How does that work as a business model if Solak gets pissed off at the way the owners are running the club he is financing? Can anyone explain it in laymen's terms because I can't make sense of it.

So 4 wins in what seems forever is no reason to boycott these charlatans just because money has been provided - and large chunks of it wasted I might add. If that isn't ammunition enough to warrant a boycott I don't know what is.

Maybe they'll gift us 2 or 3 goals like we seem to do every game. Not holding my breath. Today McCarthy should save that first goal with no trouble and sadly the young lad panicked and chested the ball down for them to score the second. So that's 5 gifted goals in two games. If I didn't know different I'd think some sort of betting scandal is going on.

Not sure on that point. As a business you'd think two relegations would prove disastrous but I suppose that's partly offset by parachute payments. They've also seriously fucked off the majority of the fanbase. Whichever way you look at it it's a mess and the future looks pretty unpalatable for us fans.

Yes but they own the club. It's their plaything so they don't want or need to give it up. If the fans don't like it I'm not sure what we do about it. That's my point. It's a closed shop. The only way I see anything happening is if Dragan states he's providing no more money and demands a way to get back some of what he's already put in. I'm scratching my head because it's a weird set up with Solak providing the money and SR making the decisions.

Is he one of the SR lot?

And who will appoint said new manager? That's right those very knowledgeable football people at SR. How is their track record of such appointments looking?

But how do we get SR removed from the club?

Think it was Manning to be fair.

Solak must surely be sitting down with his advisers and discussing his exit strategy to get him out of this money losing racket. No idea how he goes about it but surely he is too shrewd a businessman to let this farce continue. Anyone who understands the SR/Dragan set up and relationship know how he could extract himself and get back some of the money he's put in and where that leaves the football club? Up shit creek without a paddle I would imagine.

The manager is only a small part of the problem and changing him will solve nothing. We must get SR out. How you do that I have no idea.

I'm amazed how so many total charlatans like Spors manage to con their way in to well paid football positions. He's proved himself completely incompetent but that won't stop him getting another job in football after some other club falls for his bullshit.

Steve Bruce! God no, never in a million years.

It's not skill and creativity on their own - what we are severely lacking is any powerful footballers who can get around the pitch at pace, win their individual duels and battles and give the more talented players a base to work from. We are pathetically weak in mind and body.

Amen to this. Our team of weaklings will continue to throw games away.

I've tried to back him but the last two games especially today have been awful. The continued use of 3 centre backs then bringing on a fourth was too much. I was expecting some fresh tactical ideas from him but it just hasn't happened. I'd rather he tried the young lad up front today and he's never even given Aribo of Adozie a chance. He's played Fellows as a wing back and failed to utilise the talents of Azaz. I get that we've had injuries and sickness but that's the time a decent manager really earns his corn. Sorry Will but it's a no from me.

Seriously what do we have to do to get this bunch of tossers out of our club? It's a weird set up as Solak seems to provide the money but the jokers at SR make all the decisions despite the fact that not one of them has a clue about running a football club. Is it possible for Dragan to sack them? I don't think it is. Are we just stuck with them? In over 60 years supporting this club I've never seen it in such a mess.

As incompetent as Will Still proved himself today the horrific news is that those who appointed him have to sack him and choose his successor ergo the main problem is partly the manager but it's SR who we need to get rid of. Fix the problem at its source which is our batshit owners. We can let them appoint as many managers as they want but us getting a half decent football club back doesn't even start until the first day they are gone.

It's called Sports Republic and we can thank Martin Semmens for where we find ourselves.

It's SR that need to be gone. They are sucking the life blood out of this football club. Who would trust them to appoint a decent manager if they sack Still? While they continue to run the club we are fucked and nothing will change. The head of the snake has to be severed to stop the poison.

It's hard to see him surviving because he's come here as a young manager with fresh ideas but it's not worked. His inexperience goes against him once results start to go pear shaped and the fan base are quite rightly now baying for blood. I think SR will give him more time but can't see anything improving because he's not been the manager we were promised.

Yeah, when you describe the 4 wins in detail it brings home how bad we've been. Hard to know what happens next with us because the elephant in the room SR is too big to get out through the door so we're stuck with them.