ART

Coming from you that is quite something. Generally I thought his replies to what he was asked were pretty good. Of course, he took the opportunity to blow his trumpet but if you are fair, he has a lot to be thanked for. Still loves the use of Pipelines, something I've always linked to my memory of Rupert. Listen in full to Rupert Lowe at the following link http://talksport.com/football/exclusive-southampton-conveyor-belt-will-soon-stop-warns-ex-chairman-lowe-140730104634

We are talking about Tottenham. Pochettino and Spurs signed an agreement not to take any of our players for 1 year. He's taking it personally probably not realising the legality of this agreement. I would think this doesn't stop them going to another club. I was told Rodriguez can't leave till he gets full clearance from the doctors and his insurance. This is normal in the case of such an accident.

This is a VERIFIED ACCOUNT and therefore his. Birthday wishes from his brother and you say odd tweets. Saint Charlie, how many birthday tweets from the club have you seen on the accounts of our players? There is such a thing as Direct Message and as he was training today I am certain the club would have arranged something.

Indeed great news if true. Have to listen again as I was certain he said both players are playing at Brighton TONIGHT!!! Firstly the match is on Thursday and Jay cannot play. Can anyone confirm him saying this?

Happy Birthday Jay. Many Happy Returns. Have a great day.

The full English translation on the original website of the article posted last night 29 juil. 2014 – 18:16 – Par Romain Molina Southampton is for sale With Morgan Schneiderlin and Jay Rodriguez likely to leave Saint Mary’s, Southampton’s owner Katharina Liebherr will cash in around 150 millions of Euros. Given Liebherr’s lack of interest towards the Saints, the news of her will to sell the club is not a surprise. Her entourage, and specifically Southampton’s current chairman, Ralph Krueger, are currently looking for a rich investor. Translation by Charly Moriceau French version In 2011, World Economic Forum, a non-profit organization which gathers numerous influential persons in multiple fields of activity, officially welcomed a new member: Ralph Krueger. The German is a former successful hockey player and is described as a “leader” by World Economic Forum’s official website. His success went beyond sports: his book “Teamlife – Beyond Setbacks to Success” was a bestseller around the world. Earlier in 2014, he was appointed as chairman of Southampton, replacing Markus Liebherr’s former right arm man, Nicola Cortese. Cortese was the main architect of the Southampton squad which climbed up to Premier League from League One. Nicola Cortese and Katharina Liebherr – Markus’s daughter and current owner – have had a lot of disagreements, specifically about the huge power Cortese had and used in Southampton. The Italian banker was known for being a tough negotiator. A study published by the BBC showed that between October 2012 and September 2013, Southampton only paid £2.2 millions in agent fees, ranking the Saints in the 17th spot, far behind Chelsea (£13.7M) or even Newcastle (£7.2M). Cortese was omnipotent in Southampton and deeply wanted the club to reach aim and higher. He was willing to keep the key players at Saint Mary’s and even wanted to convince Pochettino to stay. These objectives did not match Katharina Liebherr’s. Despite being some kind of a dictator, everything was running perfectly fine under Nicola Cortese’s presidency at Southampton. Christian Purslow, Liverpool’s former general manager, was appointed to probe the market. The English businessman is the co-founder of MidOcean Partners, an American firm specialized in buyouts, sales and capital increases. Though, he does not seem to be involved in Southampton anymore. Even though Cortese somehow tried and failed to buy the club back shortly after his resignation, Katharina Liebherr was not willing to sell to him. She decided to appoint Liverpool’s former general manager Christian Purslow to softly probe the market for a buyout. Purslow is a well-known businessman and is the co-founder of an American firm specialized in buyouts, sales and capital increases. The firm value is estimated around 3 billion dollars and has invested money everywhere. It was not surprising that Purslow, whom Gary Neville called “a clueless fool”, managed to get a £80M four-year contract with Standard Chartered Bank for the Liverpool’s shirt sponsoring… Though, Purslow researches were not successful. A specialist in English club buyouts explains: “On the market, everybody knows Southampton is for sale. The strategy is simple: Southampton needs to have a good treasury since they had a lot of loans and debts before. They also need to reinforce the team without investing too much money in order to maintain the stability of the club and attract potential buyers” “Mandaric did the same with Sheffield Wednesday. It’s not officially for sale, but informally it is. Aston Villa did the opposite and see where they are now: nobody is interested in them. In the business world, you need to be discrete and not to show when you are weak. If you publicly explain that you want to sell and that not everything is okay, either you get scammers; either you get people who will try to lower the price, just like it happened with Reading. Southampton understood that very clearly. Recently, there have been contacts with foreign investors. The sale of multiple players was a successful hint for them.” “Krueger perfectly assimilated the way to work rich people with a big ego. These people like to wipe everything out, start again and take full control so they can take the pride if it works out. Here, he is handling this incredibly well.” “It’s an enrichment strategy, of course, but it’s also a way to attract the egocentric buyer. One of my friends was involved in negotiations with Krueger before. This guy is a shark; he does not let you breathe. His nerves are unbreakable. He has completely assimilated the way rich people with a lot of ego work. They like to wipe everything out, start over and take full control so they can take the pride if it succeeds. Here, it’s perfect. Tottenham bid for Schneiderlin some time ago Logically, Southampton follows the same strategy with its (former) key players. They do not talk much but they negotiate hard. Following Pochettino’s leave to Spurs, the Saints planned no to send any player there, even if it meant let a few millions go away. Though, Tottenham were the only one to show some interest in Jay Rodriguez. Rodriguez, bought for £7M from Burnley in 2012, was completely forgotten by Adkins, only to become later one of Pochettino’s key players, ending up missing the World Cup because of an injury. The Argentinian coach turned J.Rod into a brand new player. Thus, Rodriguez has a very strong bond to Pochettino, just like Morgan Schneiderlin. The Frenchman never missed an opportunity to claim his respect for Pochettino (cf. our interview). “He’s a man of details, really. I remember that at the beginning, he was showing us that a meter or even less than a meter could prevent a pass in the midfield. By making one or two steps or simply bending over, you could put your opponent in a difficult position”, he said to me about the former Parisian defender. Tottenham bid for Schneiderlin some days ago, as we told you in our podcast last Thursday. As for Arsenal, they are also interested in the Frenchman. The Gunners were scouting him in Strasbourg in 2008, before he moved to the South Coast. Olivier Giroud and his teammates even gently pushed him to join them during the World Cup. We do not know whether Arsenal made a concrete offer to Southampton, but we can confirm that Arsenal, Morgan Schneiderlin and his agent have had contacts. van Dijk Virgil van Dijk is being chased by multiple Premier League clubs. The Dutchman was brilliant since his arrival at Celtic Park last year. He is the Bhoys defensive leader and has way more influence than Efe Ambrose. Celtic’s Forster and van Dijk are the main targets When it comes to new players, Ronald Koeman is a big fan of Virgil van Dijk (23 years old), the Celtic’s central defender. An offer has already been made, and same goes for the Bhoys’ goalkeeper Fraser Forster (26 years old). Though, the £3.5M offer for the latter has been – rightfully – called “derisory” by the Hoops. With the recent signing of Craig Gordon, it is legitimate to think that the sale of Fraser Forster is something Celtic anticipated. About van Dijk, Celtic is going to do whatever it takes to keep him. The defender was left out the Dutch squad for the World Cup for an unknown reason given his skills (anticipation, technique, aerial timing, strenght, composure…). If the Scots make it to the group stages of the Champions League, it will be hard to lure him away. If they don’t – or if the Saints offer £10M – he will be at Saint Mary’s next year. The Bhoys, with their tiny budget of a Championship club, will then have trouble refusing the money… Southampton scouts have also been watching Emilio Izaguirre (28 years old) for months. The Honduran left-back is currently playing at…Celtic. No offer has been made yet given that Koeman is focused on Jetro Willems (20 years old left-back from PSV) at the moment. Southampton Academy’s Matt Targett (18 years old) will be a full member of the squad this year as well. The young left-back has been playing in England U19 for a while now after wearing the Scottish jersey in his early years. Many big English clubs are already laying eyes on him. Finally, the Papy Djilobodji (26 years old, center-back) lead is not dead yet: the directors have had a meeting with his agent recently. Though, the Nantes defender remains a secondary target for the Saints. - See more at: http://www.hat-trick.fr/southampton-is-for-sale/#sthash.AEcWnDi1.dpuf http://www.hat-trick.fr/southampton-is-for-sale/

Alex Crook has just tweeted the Rodriguez deal is almost complete but Schneiderlin, for some reason isn't that far. He mentions a possibility that an offer from Arsenal may be on the table.

I am flabbergasted the likes of SaintCharlie and Window Cleaner have nothing to add to this article

I posted yesterday that Redknapp said at their Press Conference that QPR aren't interested in Fer. Wish you had heard Mark Scott on Talksport late last night answer all the questions of what is going on. She confirmed that legally can take everything, hook, line and sinker but certainly she won't and will ensure we don't get relegated as that would really be the end of her father's investment

Ridiculous! Michael Owen blasts Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool's Southampton raids MICHAEL OWEN has dubbed the big Southampton exodus as "ridiculous". By Jack Wilson/Published 29th July 2014 Starsport reported this morning how Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino is ready to make a £50m raid on his old club for Morgan Schneiderlin and Jay Rodriguez. If the duo leave, it could take the number of Saints stars walking out of St Mary's to a staggering seven. Calum Chambers yesterday sealed a move to Arsenal while Dejan Lovren signed for Liverpool over the weekend. He joins Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert at Anfield while Luke Shaw swapped the Saints for Manchester United. Owen tweeted: "I thought if Southampton lost 1 player they would lose 3 or 4. This, however, is getting ridiculous! Have they got any players left?!!! "On a serious note, Southampton have received top dollar and should be applauded. Time to invest wisely and continue to trust their academy." Dani Osvaldo, Jose Fonte and Jack Cork are all wanted by other clubs too but executive director Les Reed has urged fans not to panic. Reed said: "It is important in the transfer window to remain calm, resilient and above all patient. We have targets and we are working hard to get them."

He was training with Zaha together. Now Zaha has been chosen to play the next game and look sent back to train with the reserves. Can see him being sent out on loan for the season. Doubt if he'll be worried on the money he's now being paid.

Just listened to some financial fellow called Mark Scott on Talksport answer all questions about the financial situation and what they are trying to achieve. The last thing the board would want to do is to lose PL status. I am hoping there will be a podcast and it will answer all questions all the supporters are asking. Will keep checking. Believe Mike Graham is going to be talking Saints during the night.

This journalist Romain Molina is a leading French expect on English football/football players for CNN, L'Equipe and leading newspapers in France.

No Forster coming http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2708897/Fraser-Forster-not-sold-Southampton-Celtic-settle-Champions-League-fate.html

At present she is pulling out of the business, recuperating the investment of her father with the intention of handing over to new investors. If she were to actually pull the plug entirely it would certainly be a whole lot worse than at present.

I totally agree. It'd been irritating me all day the disrespect being shown to Katharina Liebherr. She could have or could pull the plug completely at any moment and then where would the club be.

Her home base is in Switzerland and doesn't matter whether paid outright or over installments. I will bet the fees are being paid up front.

Yes and the barstewards have known all along and have lied thru their teeth to us.Reported here in France SFC up for sale http://www.hat-trick.fr/southampton-est-en-vente/

Early summer it was posted here that Ralph Kreugar would be spending the summer months in Canada looking for investors. Clear now he's been looking for buyers. It's been clear from the mass sale what has been going on. The Training Center could well be sold and run independently with access to all top clubs and perhaps Koeman. his brother, Sammy Lee are lined up to run it and not the club.

If there was not alternative the return of Cortese would calm the seas. Personally I'd prefer the appointment of John Williams. Even Rupert Lowe could do a better job that the 3 Stooges.

Don't take any notice Batman. He sent me a similar message 4 years back when I spilt the beans to him in return for an exclusive. I've never heard a thing from Ben since.

In the modern game one has to wonder which is the greater evil in the game.......... Match fixing or conning the club for a transfer after being secretly in liaison and negotiation with the eventual club they move for. Nowadays players can contact by direct message on Twitter and no one is any the wiser. Except in the case of Luke Shaw some strange tweets would appear and then soon got deleted arousing suspicions by those who kept close watch.

He's been posting daily and stirring everyone up for ages. Haven't you realised yet that GUAN is a regular member of Saintsweb. He can't change his registered member status to full member as he's a member already. People have offered to pay full membership for him but he doesn't/can't accept. I have my suspicions on who it is but I'm more interested on the agenda and who at the club is behind his revelations which strangely have dried up of late with nothing of substance posted.

The one thing about Kevin Davies is that the guy is a true Saint. Despite the years, he loves Saints and follows everything Saints very closely. He is someone I have always had the greatest respect for and it's a real shame there are not more players like him at the club nowadays. For those doubting his knowledge of Saints I can inform them that one of his closest buddies is Matt Le Tissier. Their friendship goes back to the days when Kevin still played for Saints and Matt was one of his strongest supporters.

Happy Harry doesn't seem to be having any problems signing players at QPR. Not interested in FER.