John D

Profit after tax £62m; Profit from player transfers for the same 2 years £110m. If you exclude player trading we made a profit of £1m in financial year to end June 2018. So yes we do have to sell players to buy them.

Who does Winnie the Pooh plan to replace Gao with? Biggest complaint about Gao appears to me that he won't invest his own money. If he had pumped £300m of his own cash into transfers it wouldn't surprise me that Saints fans would happily turn a blind eye to his dodgy background. City fans being an obvious example of this. It will cost £200m min to buy the club plus £50m towards transfer every year so around £500m cash available. So anyone who buys us will been to be worth a £1b at least unless they are an idiot and prepared to risk over half their fortune on us. Forbes estimate that there are 2200 billionaires in the world of which 20% are chinese. (according to Wikepedia anyway!!). So not many potential buyers out there at all unless it is nation state or a consortium of investors can be cobbled together. Pretty sure KL didn't have many other offers to chose from and Ashley has been trying to flog newcastle for years. So would fans be happy with someone who doesn't invest their own cash but appears to show a bit more interest / has a reputable background / is local etc? I think there is a lot dodgy about him and his dubious past so would rather we had someone else but who? If it is proved (and the last accounts suggest otherwise) that he is using the club to line his own pockets then he needs to go. Otherwise we are stuck with him.

We've only had 2 owners in our history that I know of that invested their own money (other than to buy shares). Crouch and Liebherr. The first was not 10s of millions but was fantastic and saved us. The second was an investment where a clear return was available. So to blame it all on Gao when he is no different to most owners is unreasonable unless he starts taking money out to service his debt or line his pockets. That said I do think he is dodgy as it comes and would love to be shot of him. Sponsorship deal stinks to high heaven and he needs to high a good PR agency to please those fans who need constant soundbites.

I wonder what the insurance coverage is on this. Could be Cardiff are being directed by their Insurers who are trying to avoid a big payout. So blame may not be with Cardiff

Is Valery injured or just out of favour?

Looks like some of these have been released back already as few more in one of the central blocks appeared this morning

About 50 tickets left. Guess this will sell out tomorrow

Please elaborate, what was wrong with them? Thanks

Hang on a minute. We were told by people on this forum that we weren't replacing Rohl as we wanted to save money.

Saw a group of lads using a 10 year old to smuggle a flare into the away end at Liverpool last year. That's why they search children.

We had Branfoot, Souness and Merrington in the 90s. No notable cup runs really and mostly relegation battles. Other than Le Tissier it was pretty dire.

Jesus wept. Our assistant manager has left to join one of the biggest clubs in the world. Hardly a surprise

But at least in the Premier League that is usually only 2 or 3 times a season. Midweek games I can live with but it is a ****ing pain in the arse when they get moved to a Friday as well. I'm already taking half day for Bournemouth and Norwich at home. Can't afford the holiday to do it a 3rd time. Try joining the real world

Friday are the worst for travelling fans or fans who live outside Southampton. I was planning on coming down for this one to see the family back home etc but now unless I take kids out of school and a half day holiday myself then no chance At least weekend games that are moved do not require time off work

Think there is a view that the change to goal kicks will make it more difficult to do the early press at a goal kick as the attacking players aren't allowed in the penalty box giving defenders more time to play the ball out as they can be in the area

I can only think of 5 parties involved in this transaction - Saints, Under Armour, LG Sports and Virgin (as arm sponsor) and the premier league/FA (to approve shirt design). We've been told it's not UA, can't see an issue with Virgin or the FA so that only leaves our new main "sponsor". I suspect they haven't paid up yet hence the delay!

So with 9 days till the transfer window closes what do you predict Saints will do? I reckon INS - One CB I have never heard of OUTS - Lemina (Perm); Austin (Loan on DD to Championship team); Reed (Loan); Hesketh (Released on free to join league one team). OUTS after English window shuts - Carillio (perm) Would love to see us shift Forster and one of Stephens / Hoedt but can't see it happening

Doesn't seem to be in any of the training pictures today. Perhaps he's been offered a head coach role somewhere or off for personal reasons.

I read it that a priority plus gets access to home games before a standard membership. Bit irrelevant given all home games make general sale anyway and would no way sell out to membership plus. Unless you want a better choice of seat there is no benefit in that aspect of the offering

Is there any genuine agent on twitter who posts this sort of ****e? I suspect not

Is the Geordies gripe with Ashley that he won't invest his own cash? Or has he taken money out or refused to allow generated funds to be spent and they are sitting on loads of cash? Just wondering why they hate him so much, but then it is Ashley so perhaps no rational reason needed!

Didn't we have a Draper kit back in the 80's where the sponsor was changed or added late on so ended up with a big black patch over the original logo?

The whole point here is that there is no definitive evidence either way on what the position is, certainly limited available that most of us can access. Possible scenario - whilst there are no charges against SFC itself, if we assume Charlie M is correct, then Gao borrowed money through his Hong Kong Company (which in itself is owned by a BVI company). Those debts may be secured against the assets of the Hong Kong company, these are presumably the UK Lander company and ultimately Saints. So the HK company may have to rely on revenues from Saints to service and repay the loan. None of this would show at Companies House. In this case it is a concern as any profit would have to be used to fund the loans. If the HK company defaults then Saints could end up being owned by the HK bank Or alternatively - the loans are true but will be serviced by other income Gao has so reduced risk to Saints. Or the loans don't exist. What we do know is that 1) we have secrecy over our ultimate ownership, 2) our owner's motives are unknown, 3) he is not putting any funds in, 4) we have a strange sponsorship deal in place which raises further questions So given the above, I think having concerns is fully justified - the frustrating part, so what can we do about them?

The 2018 accounts state that the Ings fee was due to be paid this year. Will be in the budget as a committed expenditure but not paid out until around now

As has been asked before. What is your source of info to confirm existence of this £200m loan?