The Sunday Times - Southampton put up for sale at £250m

Warning: Any takeover rumours can only be taken seriously if a yacht is mentioned at least once.

Unless identity of potential purchaser verified by earlobe scrutiny.

Warning: Any takeover rumours can only be taken seriously if a yacht is mentioned at least once.

I think anyone trying to buy us will likely be flying the Jolly Roger, so keep an eye out for a crew of scurvy buccaneers, making their way up the solent.

I think anyone trying to buy us will likely be flying the Jolly Roger, so keep an eye out for a crew of scurvy buccaneers, making their way up the solent.

Better look out for Master Bates and Seaman Staines on the Black Pig then. A consortium of Captain Pugwash, Johnny Depp and Keith Richard it is.

Better look out for Master Bates and Seaman Staines on the Black Pig then. A consortium of Captain Pugwash, Johnny Depp and Keith Richard it is.

Inside info:

I'm not involved sorry, neither Johnny Depp. Keith Richard and Seaman Staines at logger heads over who's Chairman.

An alright read:

https://gameofthepeople.com/2020/05/08/southampton-changing-conditions-not-owners/

I think anyone trying to buy us will likely be flying the Jolly Roger, so keep an eye out for a crew of scurvy buccaneers, making their way up the solent.

Aye Aye Cap'n

Happened to be watching Al Jazeera this morning (as you do) and they had a report on the Saudi consortium's WTO investigation in which they mentioned the fact that they (the consortium, not Al Jazeera) are looking to buy a Premiership club.  Understandably, they showed footage of St James's with Newcastle players training and then went back to the WTO report .   The interesting bit was at the end of the article they brought up a picture of a Premiership ground in their closing summary but this time it wasn't St James's but the ground of a totally different St. and the black stripes had become red.  

Now, the Grauniad are reporting that US businessman Henry Mauriss has offered $50m more than the Saudis for Newcastle.  Not sure if the Al Jazeera picture of our ground was a mistake or whether they knew something and were giving some sort of weird hint. Even if that is the case the WTO report came down against the Saudis so they may not be allowed to buy any club at all so probably nothing in it. 

Perhaps Henry Mauriss may look in our direction if he fails to land Newcastle.....

13 hours ago, SW5 SAINT said:

Perhaps Henry Mauriss may look in our direction if he fails to land Newcastle.....

Maybe.  There seems to be something decidedly fishy going on with that Newcastle takeover.    All the press were reporting that contracts had been exchanged and the Saudis had put down a non-refundable deposit of $17million but the whole thing was held up on the EPL fit and proper persons test because of suspected involvement in the BeOutQ pirate station.  So, if the EPL approve then deal done, if not then Newcastle are left without a buyer (or their main one at the very least). 

Given all that, how does it make any sense for Mauriss to offer $50 million over the asking price at this stage ? Either he's not going to get Newcastle at all or he's in a good negotiating position to get it at a lower price if the verdict goes against the Saudis.   The whole thing doesn't add up if you take the press reports at face value.  Can't help feeling there's games being played around that whole deal.   

I'll be fucked off if we were bought by Saudi's, that would be worse than the current lot.

9 hours ago, Fan The Flames said:

I'll be fucked off if we were bought by Saudi's, that would be worse than the current lot.

Morally worse as they have an appalling human rights record. But they would likely invest big.

I'd hope we aren't taken over by the Saudi's. We'd become soulless as a club and despised by everyone. I also suspect our entire identity of developing youth players would end.

We must be an attractive proposition to buyers, hopefully we get a good one.

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

I'd hope we aren't taken over by the Saudi's. We'd become soulless as a club and despised by everyone. I also suspect our entire identity of developing youth players would end.

We must be an attractive proposition to buyers, hopefully we get a good one.

Agree with you about the Saudi investment.

But why must we be an attractive proposition ? We've potentially reached our peak value and although we have the possibility of challenging for Europa League places if well managed this doesn't bring lucrative benefits. Newcastle on the other hand could be potential contenders for CL and with massive support. If you were looking at growth following investment a Championship or L1 club with scope is more likely to bring ££. As painful as it might be to admit., although I wouldn't begrudge Plymouth a chance to climb up the league.

8 hours ago, Badger said:

Agree with you about the Saudi investment.

But why must we be an attractive proposition ? We've potentially reached our peak value and although we have the possibility of challenging for Europa League places if well managed this doesn't bring lucrative benefits. Newcastle on the other hand could be potential contenders for CL and with massive support. If you were looking at growth following investment a Championship or L1 club with scope is more likely to bring ££. As painful as it might be to admit., although I wouldn't begrudge Plymouth a chance to climb up the league.

Not sure why Newcastle can be CL contenders but not us, both squads would need similar investment and PL club incomes these days doesn't come from matchday, more about TV money and sponsorship. Newcastles worldwide fan base isn't exactly huge..I don't see that many shirts around here or Asia compared to the top 5/6 teams.

14 hours ago, Badger said:

Agree with you about the Saudi investment.

But why must we be an attractive proposition ? We've potentially reached our peak value and although we have the possibility of challenging for Europa League places if well managed this doesn't bring lucrative benefits. Newcastle on the other hand could be potential contenders for CL and with massive support. If you were looking at growth following investment a Championship or L1 club with scope is more likely to bring ££. As painful as it might be to admit., although I wouldn't begrudge Plymouth a chance to climb up the league.

Saints very nearly achieved it off their own back under Koeman. Let alone with a mega rich owner behind the scenes. Newcastle have a massive fanbase and great stadium (I think we'd all agree), but their fans are also toxic to the team. Saints are a steady club by a large, its a shame the rug was pulled from under us under Koeman as we were on the verge of being an established top 8 club when he left.

14 hours ago, Badger said:

Agree with you about the Saudi investment.

But why must we be an attractive proposition ? We've potentially reached our peak value and although we have the possibility of challenging for Europa League places if well managed this doesn't bring lucrative benefits. Newcastle on the other hand could be potential contenders for CL and with massive support. If you were looking at growth following investment a Championship or L1 club with scope is more likely to bring ££. As painful as it might be to admit., although I wouldn't begrudge Plymouth a chance to climb up the league.

Massive support doesn't necessarily bring success. They've always had it, yet not won the FA Cup for 65 years, or the top division for 93 years. There's a hell of a lot of of clubs with smaller followings have done better, even we've won a cup in that time period.

Newcastle have one thing against them, and that is location. To me it is a beautiful part of the country, but do footballing (mercenary) super stars want to live there?

Start winning trophies and your fan base size will naturally grow anyway. Look at city. 
 

but Newcastle are a much bigger club than us currently and would be a far more attractive proposition I would say. The only real thing in our favour is location. 

29 minutes ago, angelman said:

Newcastle have one thing against them, and that is location. To me it is a beautiful part of the country, but do footballing (mercenary) super stars want to live there?

Ever been out in Newcastle on a Saturday night or enjoyed the nightlife there ?

19 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Morally worse as they have an appalling human rights record. But they would likely invest big.

1.5mil uighurs in re-education camps say hold my beer.

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/global

personally I would take the Saudi owners if they tried to buy us . unfortunately wont happen maybe the 2nd guy who bid for Newcastle may be interested.

I'd take a Hitler/Pol pot consortium if it ment money being pumped into our club !

Not really a Saints-link, but an article on potential takeover at Burnley (interest from American & middle-eastern investors).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/06/27/burnley-attracting-interest-overseas-investors-seeking-buy-premier/

34 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Not really a Saints-link, but an article on potential takeover at Burnley (interest from American & middle-eastern investors).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/06/27/burnley-attracting-interest-overseas-investors-seeking-buy-premier/

Being serious I can't see why anyone would rather buy Burnley than saints. 

27 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Being serious I can't see why anyone would rather buy Burnley than saints. 

I thought the same, which led me to assume the following.... 

1. They’ve been priced out and Burnley would be a cheaper option. 
2. they’re in negotiations and this is a tactic. Look if we don’t buy you, we’ll buy someone else. 
 

or the unlikely options:

3. We’re not for sale 

4. we’ve already got a buyer agreed. 

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

Being serious I can't see why anyone would rather buy Burnley than saints. 

Financially they are very well run, they've established themselves as a stable mid table side under Dyche and they're probably much cheaper to invest in than we are. 

Certainly you could argue we have more potential value in the long term though!

Neither Burnley nor Saints are a sensible investment if you are looking to make money. If you’re looking to create a legacy, some sort of public relations push on behalf of a government or what have you then there’s probably not much in it but Southampton is obviously a bigger place and closer to London.

If you’re looking for a return, better to buy a Champ club or even League One with decent infrastructure, like Sheff U, Wolves, Leicester etc. and like us with Markus.

To materially increase the value of Saints or Burnley would take hundreds of millions, on top of the purchase price. Who is seriously looking to do that? 

2 hours ago, benjii said:

 

To materially increase the value of Saints or Burnley would take hundreds of millions, on top of the purchase price. Who is seriously looking to do that? 

Some would, look at Newcastle...why not just buy Sunderland just down the road for a hell of a lot much cheaper?

I'd imagine for a lot of these mega-rich owners it probably isn't really about making money out of their clubs as much as just spending their surplus cash and boosting their ego. Most probably want an instant fix with a Premier League club, the leagues below hold no real kudos abroad and there's no guarantee drenching a decent-sized club (for example Leeds, Sheff Wed, Forest) in money gets you up to the PL.

3 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Some would, look at Newcastle...why not just buy Sunderland just down the road for a hell of a lot much cheaper?

I covered that in my first paragraph. The Saudis aren't trying to buy Newcastle to make money directly. It's a PR exercise to help them drive interest and investment into their economy, to diversify from oil and try to become a tourism destination and drive demand for infrastructure development. It also provides a level of political cover and cache.

Yeah, you might get lucky and attract a sovereign wealth fund or a mega-billionaire but it's unlikely and it's not a sound business proposition. 

Unless you are like a London club with tourist fans or a massive global appeal club like Man Utd, match day income for PL clubs is not a huge part of their income. 

In 2018-19 Saints made £17 million and Newcastle made £23 million. Now you might reckon that Newcastle might have a bit more potential than us to expand on that figure with some better football, maybe European football etc. , but you also have to think of the area, it's not like Newcastle is London full of affluent tourists buying shirts and scarves all the time, there is probably only so much you can squeeze out of that playerbase even if it not far of double ours. 

Even Arsenal who make nearly £100 million a year from it, it's still only 25% of their revenue and if they were in champions league etc, it would be an even lower percentage.

If you are buying a middling PL club, you are buying access to the TV money first and foremost and the global exposure of the PL. 

I wouldn't want the Saudi's though either, even if they splashed the cash, it would feel like blood money. 

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/ex-liverpool-transfer-chief-damien-22263018erpool-transfer-chief-damien-22263018

9 hours ago, beavis17 said:

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/ex-liverpool-transfer-chief-damien-22263018erpool-transfer-chief-damien-22263018

Are we seriously valued at 50-100 million less than Palace?! Mental.

What is really mental is how much London property costs. If Palace did an MK Dons and moved out, consider the real estate value of Selhurst Park. Probably worth a bit more than our patch of Northam.

19 hours ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

What is really mental is how much London property costs. If Palace did an MK Dons and moved out, consider the real estate value of Selhurst Park. Probably worth a bit more than our patch of Northam.

But we've got Jackson's farm remember !

8 minutes ago, simo said:

But we've got Jackson's farm remember !

Is there a huge oil reserve or something under this farm......?

On 5/8/2020 at 10:41 AM, Lighthouse said:

 

I think anyone trying to buy us will likely be flying the Jolly Roger, so keep an eye out for a crew of scurvy buccaneers, making their way up the solent.

The Pompey Team in a rowing boat?

Any thoughts on what the current problems in Hong Kong will affect the relationship between China and the UK and the possible affect on Chinese (eg Gao) investment in this country.
It seems there is already an issue with the Chinese owners of Wigan.

10 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

Any thoughts on what the current problems in Hong Kong will affect the relationship between China and the UK and the possible affect on Chinese (eg Gao) investment in this country.
It seems there is already an issue with the Chinese owners of Wigan.

 

Gao doesn’t invest his own money into the club, so I suppose it’ll be business as usual as long as the tv cash keeps coming in.

Wigan was bought 4 weeks ago by a HK consortium, now they’ve gone bust !

1 hour ago, East Kent Saint said:

Wigan was bought 4 weeks ago by a HK consortium, now they’ve gone bust !

Nothing dodgy there. Me thinks that's got something to do with them needing a quick way to shuffle their assets about and move money out of Hong Kong. 

2 hours ago, East Kent Saint said:

Wigan was bought 4 weeks ago by a HK consortium, now they’ve gone bust !

What the hell is this fit and proper process thing actually doing?

Absolute shambles again by the FA and EFL.

Absolute balls up again by FA and EFL. 

What’s this anyone?

Southampton FC - Companies House website added a charge/debenture from MSD UK Holdings Ltd. 

The signatory was Marcello Liguori but his address is given as MSD Partners, L.P. in New York. That company manages the assets of multi-billionaire Michael S Dell

1 minute ago, Pilchards said:

What’s this anyone?

 

Southampton FC - Companies House website added a charge/debenture from MSD UK Holdings Ltd. 

The signatory was Marcello Liguori but his address is given as MSD Partners, L.P. in New York. That company manages the assets of multi-billionaire Michael S Dell

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

What the hell is this fit and proper process thing actually doing?

Absolute shambles again by the FA and EFL.

They're also showing the same inconsistencies in point deductions. Doing the same thing to Wigan as they did to us in 2009, but not to Portsmouth - if you survive then we take your points off your final tally and you'll go down. If you go down then start on minus points.

Back to Wigan , Guardian saying the first HK Company who bought Wigan a few weeks ago have now resold it to another HK Co (Chairman involved in both Co 's ) for a profit plus repayment of all monies , loans etc and then put the club owned by this new company into administration ! What ??

38 minutes ago, East Kent Saint said:

Back to Wigan , Guardian saying the first HK Company who bought Wigan a few weeks ago have now resold it to another HK Co (Chairman involved in both Co 's ) for a profit plus repayment of all monies , loans etc and then put the club owned by this new company into administration ! What ??

Something very iffy has gone on, hopefully the truth will out ...

Just another example of how toothless football league/prem are in filtering out awful owners. Such a shame that community assets are so vulnerable.

I know there have been many a false dawn but hopefully in the aftermath of a new financial landscape more regulation will come into ownership/financial structures to allow clubs to complete without needing the backing of venture capitalists, oligarchs or morally bankrupt countries investment arms looking to sportswash horrendous human rights records. It would be great if this could happen without decent clubs going to the wall.

19 hours ago, Pilchards said:

What’s this anyone?

 

Southampton FC - Companies House website added a charge/debenture from MSD UK Holdings Ltd. 

The signatory was Marcello Liguori but his address is given as MSD Partners, L.P. in New York. That company manages the assets of multi-billionaire Michael S Dell

So there are reports Michael Dell (of Dell Computers) is investing in Southampton FC: anyone know anything about this???

12 minutes ago, RinNY said:

So there are reports Michael Dell (of Dell Computers) is investing in Southampton FC: anyone know anything about this???

Reports from where? I have just seen on here some wild guesses and supposition 

1 minute ago, Give it to Ron said:

Reports from where? I have just seen on here some wild guesses and supposition 

I saw a brief report on NewsNowSouthampton; but I see there is a thread on this, though with a mysterious name referring to McQuarie bank rather than Dell