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


The Odd Guy

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Can any of the ITKers shed any light on this story that has been reported in the times?

 

I don’t think we have any. A good friend of a friend who has a fairly senior role at the club was made redundant very recently. All ties in with the club not doing what Ralph had indicated would happen in January.

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I don’t think we have any. A good friend of a friend who has a fairly senior role at the club was made redundant very recently. All ties in with the club not doing what Ralph had indicated would happen in January.

 

Oh really, what sort of senior role was it?

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Let’s say it was on the commercial side.

 

Oh right I see. Isnt David Thomas head of the commercial side of things? Also I remember Ralph saying back in early January that if we wanted to do something in the window, the finances were there to do so.

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Far better value to be had buying a championship or even league one club. You could pick one of those up for a half or even third of the price, invest £50m and get them back to having the same sustainable premier league model we have.

 

Had

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People talking as if this news means it's happening, and things are coming to an end.

 

But the reality is that we've probably got a good few years of stories like this, whilst we struggle to sell.

 

Kat was trying to sell us for years remember, as soon as she got her hands on us really, but the best we could get was Gao. It's a long road ahead to rid ourselves of Gao, but at least this is a start I guess - but just don't get excited too soon, there's a lot of years ahead of us yet.

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The colours wouldn't change and a majority of clubs have modernised theirs badges in the last decade or so.

 

Team name would be more of the concern. Won't happen anyway. We will get another chancer in.

 

Who said anything about our colours changing? Of course they wouldn't.

 

And the badge wouldn't be 'modernised' It would be changed and would have two ****ing red bulls on it!

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If Red Bull buy us fine. If we become RB Southampton they can shove it up their Austrian arse. I would rather watch Saints in the National league South playing Waterlooville than support a corporate franchise club.

 

I suspect you're in a very small minority with that view. Nonetheless, the fa won't allow the name change - we'd just do an arsenal and have a branded stadium and shirts, with all sorts of perimeter and stadium branding. I'd welcome any legitimate owner who's willing to throw money at the club.

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We/re owned by a mystery chinaman. We changed our badge many times. We changed our kit many times.

 

Never said anything about us changing the kit and we've had badge changes that encompass the area or that mean something. They would want the red bull logo on it like they have with Leipzig and Salzburg.

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Few points from me.

 

Gao will not get 250 mill for his stake. Not even close, so I can only assume that this includes Kat's 20% as well. If not then we aren't getting sold. Also, the Chinese economy is taking an absolute battering atm because of this virus, so i'm not shocked to see the bank calling in some assets, although I know Gao wanted to sell before all this kicked off. Problem is, the world economy is about to tank as well, so it would be a stupid idea to spend big on a company right now with such economic uncertainty.

 

Kat sold us up a river selling us to him, myself and many others said it wouldn't be good and we aren't businessmen/women. She was extremely naive to buy his sob story about wanting to grow us. He wanted to move money out of China and it hasn't worked out for him.

 

Lastly, be careful what you wish for. Red Bull would change our name and our badge plus a lot more. I'm ok with most of it but the badge is a huge no no from me. I'd take red bull over the current owners if they are the only option.

 

I think you're being very naive if you think she was naive. She got £210m for an 80% stake. Seems pretty smart to me. Does she care what happens to us under the new owner? I guess she might have a preference, but there are 210 million reasons why it wouldn't be of paramount concern.

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I think you're being very naive if you think she was naive. She got £210m for an 80% stake. Seems pretty smart to me. Does she care what happens to us under the new owner? I guess she might have a preference, but there are 210 million reasons why it wouldn't be of paramount concern.

 

No you're probably right. She didn't give a toss as long as she was paid but she still owns 1/5th of the club, so it should be in her best interests to sell to someone who can at the very least keep us where we are. Her shares will be worth less now.

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If Red Bull buy us fine. If we become RB Southampton they can shove it up their Austrian arse. I would rather watch Saints in the National league South playing Waterlooville than support a corporate franchise club.

 

???? you would get funny by RB being in our name. So much so you would rather go and watch bog standard football with 200 attendances ??

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I am going to be the optimistic one for once...... Imagine if we did have someone coming in who was interested in investing in the squad. Why couldn't we be the next Leicester or Everton. Not going to be too optimistic and say the next Man City as i think those days with financial fair play are now gone.

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I am going to be the optimistic one for once...... Imagine if we did have someone coming in who was interested in investing in the squad. Why couldn't we be the next Leicester or Everton. Not going to be too optimistic and say the next Man City as i think those days with financial fair play are now gone.

 

The next Everton, you say? Brilliant!

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We'll end up selling to someone like Katie Hopkins or the ghost of Robert Maxwell.

 

Yeah, can just see that happening. Typical bloody Saints selling up to a former contestant on the Apprentice or a dead former Newspaper Mogul.

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The present owner has been such a useless flop that I feel almost anyone is sure to be better. I hope it is not a person with betting money but there is hardly anyone I would be unhappy with, after the last few years. I would even welcome Lowe. Perhaps Mike Channon will steer a racing type our way, Maybe that Dubai fellow.

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The present owner has been such a useless flop that I feel almost anyone is sure to be better. I hope it is not a person with betting money but there is hardly anyone I would be unhappy with, after the last few years. I would even welcome Lowe. Perhaps Mike Channon will steer a racing type our way, Maybe that Dubai fellow.
That Dubai fellow that is an absolute scumbag you mean? Sheikh maktoum or something. Oh yeah that would be wonderful.......

 

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Is it just me who'd really enjoy this?

 

Bring on other fans hating us. We'd be a bigger club for it.

 

Football is already all dodgy ownership, sponsorship, gambling anyway. I'd welcome fans criticising ownership by a drinks brand and media company while defending their oil barrons and arms dealers.

 

I’d love it too

 

 

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Good riddance. Bad news from the start despite the mental apologists but I fear it won’t happen overnight.

 

As I stated from the outset, the Chinese like to make money but they do not like spending spend it, as a rule.

 

Gao really is a tight fisted a**ehole. He didn’t put in a single penny according to reports and I will take great interest in the next accounts. He sold VVD & half the squad (don’t know the figures but say circa 150 million - that’s probably an under estimate but he sold Gabbiadini, Targett, Austin, Gallagher, Soares will go in summer, Clasie, Davis, Pied, Tadic, etc.) No doubt countless loan fees from Carillo, Forster, Elynoussi, Lemina, etc.

 

That’s a big waste of money in loans but they make fees but every club in the league has a big waste of money. It’s part of the Premier League and not all players are superstars. None of ours are because we sell those to the first high bidder. Gao reduced the wage bill substantially and we still have the television money which is circa 130,000,000.

 

So, Gao paid circa 210 million for us and asset stripped us to oblivion & led us to successive relegation battles. He never spoke to the fans. Created loads of hollow promises to his staff and manager. Led a prevaricating media campaign. He will leave the club, the quality of players and depth of the squad woefully much thinner (it will require well over 100 million to get a suitable squad assembled for the next campaign). We can’t even field a full & capable squad FFS. Playing Valery, someone nowhere near PL level, and losing a game due to this is a perfect example of Gao’s chronic underfunding. Yet a*se squeaking Gao sees that as a 40 million increase in value? If you were buying a house from this dotard, he’d be laughed out of the street.

 

So, Gao (hopefully) leaves the club with less tangible assets and not even a full team as we are sooooo woefully thin in numbers (due to 3 seasons of selling and barely any signings) and he now deems the club worth more than the figure he paid for it? The bloke has more front then Harrod’s.

 

What a complete c*^t!! F**k off Gao!! F**k off and never return. Parasite.

 

I did like the comment that people get on the case of Mike Ashley yet we have far far worse in Gao and people on here used to bizarrely battle and defend him. Strangest fans in the Premier League. The worst owner in our history.

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Exciting times. Hopefully we get a new owner before the noose tied by Reed and KL drags us to the depths.

 

Dark dark day in the club's history when those two ousted NC. Lets hope a throw on owner roulette saves our club and take us back to the top of our momentum curve challenging for Europe!

 

Sadly, it looks like we're skint, with terrible finances (thanks to Kat and Reed), and have an owner with no dosh... if we aren't taken over we're on an accelerated course for 2009 all over again... and without the great academy and shiny new stadium that Lowe left us.

 

You do know NC wasn't the owner? He was just an employee spending someone's else's money whilst drawing a large salary himself, which was unsustainable.

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He may or may not be the worst owner in our history, but we are still in the Premiership. No one will miss him if and when he goes, that much is true. But there is no guarantee that the next person will throw money at the club. Although Marcus is, quite rightly, held in high esteem, we do not know if he would have ploughed the money into the club in the last few years needed to make us competitive at the top end of the division. I have been a supporter since 1966 and can never remember a time when the owner/chairman/ceo threw tons of money into the club. Even when we finished runners up we still had a couple of positions in which we were a bit weak. A couple of high quality replacements and who knows, perhaps we would have won the league. This is not an argument to keep Gao, but a reminder that as a club we have only found a level of success through shrewd signings and the use of youth. Get the signings wrong and not have the quality in the youth coming through and we will struggle, whoever owns the club.

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