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Jisheng Gao

benjii

By benjii
in The Saints

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Stud mark of doom

Stud mark of doom

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Posted

August 2017 - Goa completes take over of SFC who have just finished 8th in the premier league, competed in the UEfA cup and been robbed of victory at Wembley in the league cup.

2018 - Chinine government policy explicitly limits funding for overseas sports teams 

Perhaps the decision having most impact on Saints fortunes in recent years? 

S-Clarke

S-Clarke

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7 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Better than Solak - FACT

Hard to disagree. Gao was absolutely non-descript for us and did almost certainly start the decline from the post-Liebherr era, but his hands off approach froze us in time for a bit really as he left alone what he didn't understand.  SR don't leave alone what they don't understand, always meddling.

Edited by S-Clarke
SW5 SAINT

SW5 SAINT

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15 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Rupert Lowe or the Dragon?

Anybody but Lowe…..left Southampton bankrupt and in league 1. Quite aside from all that preceded that….

Edited by SW5 SAINT
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Turkish

Turkish

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Posted
11 minutes ago, SW5 SAINT said:

Anybody but Lowe…..left Southampton bankrupt and in league 1. Quite aside from all that preceded that….

Wilde v Dragon?

Nordic Saint

Nordic Saint

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Company check says he's more than £250 million in debt. That's a lot worse than penniless. He was already in financial trouble when people were saying it was just the Chinese government preventing him from spending money here. Shares in his company had plummeted and he was selling off the remaining ones in an attempt to pay his debts. 

 

Maybe Goa would be a good place for him to hide out, if he could afford the air fare.

 

Solak's company doesn't appear to be doing that well either.

 

The one who got all the money was Kat. She made at least a quarter of a billion out of her father's investment here: roughly what Gao owes now. She certainly saw him coming. I always felt a bit sorry for him.

Edited by Nordic Saint
East Kent Saint

East Kent Saint

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2 hours ago, Nordic Saint said:

Company check says he's Xmore than £250 million in debt. That's a lot worse than penniless. He was already in financial trouble when people were saying it was just the Chinese government preventing him from spending money here. Shares in his company had plummeted and he was selling off the remaining ones in an attempt to pay his debts. 

 

Maybe Goa would be a good place for him to hide out, if he could afford the air fare.

 

Solak's company doesn't appear to be doing that well either.

 

The one who got all the money was Kat. She made at least a quarter of a billion out of her father's investment here: roughly what Gao owes now. She certainly saw him coming. I always felt a bit sorry for him.

Not sure that was the case , as I remember no one was fighting to buy Saints and Gao got 80% but had to fund it from his off shore business thanks to Xi policy change . Kat inherited Saints as well of a business portfolio of mixed quality . Marcus kept some of his businesses going , such as the printing business for nostalgia . Not good business sense . Kat shut the loss making parts down and sold Saints , a beacon of business sense in a world of mad optimism such as AI , premier rugby , most football clubs / leagues .

Edited by East Kent Saint
franniesTache

franniesTache

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Posted

One of the few times i can admit a source is this thread.

So i know A LOT about Gao and what his plans were for the club, that's because i know someone who worked directly with both him and his daughter when he was here.

Gao if China hadn't stopped the money going out would've been incredible for the club, his plans were financially sustainable and would've put a lot of money into the club in the long term.

Aside from investment into the team he wanted to invest in the city, in particular developing the area around st marys, but also investing in thing like the local universities too. Alongside that he wanted to set up satellite academies around the world - starting in China - and also set up "schools" abroad that used the clubs knowledge to teach others how to train, discover and manage young players.

There was also a desire to have a "football business" operation in China that effectively trained chinese business people in the business side of the game (at a cost obviously) and train/accredit agents too.

What was really interesting about Gao is that one of the reasons he was selected by katharina liebherr is because he was a devout buddhist and with her families christian beliefs she thought that made him more trustworthy and would care more about the wider city of Southampton and not just the club.

Unfortunately the China decision on money pretty much torpedoed all of the plans (and also the job of the person i knew), but he could've been incredible for both the club and the city

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benjii

benjii

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3 hours ago, franniesTache said:

One of the few times i can admit a source is this thread.

So i know A LOT about Gao and what his plans were for the club, that's because i know someone who worked directly with both him and his daughter when he was here.

Gao if China hadn't stopped the money going out would've been incredible for the club, his plans were financially sustainable and would've put a lot of money into the club in the long term.

Aside from investment into the team he wanted to invest in the city, in particular developing the area around st marys, but also investing in thing like the local universities too. Alongside that he wanted to set up satellite academies around the world - starting in China - and also set up "schools" abroad that used the clubs knowledge to teach others how to train, discover and manage young players.

There was also a desire to have a "football business" operation in China that effectively trained chinese business people in the business side of the game (at a cost obviously) and train/accredit agents too.

What was really interesting about Gao is that one of the reasons he was selected by katharina liebherr is because he was a devout buddhist and with her families christian beliefs she thought that made him more trustworthy and would care more about the wider city of Southampton and not just the club.

Unfortunately the China decision on money pretty much torpedoed all of the plans (and also the job of the person i knew), but he could've been incredible for both the club and the city

Do you know why they set up fake website / sponsor?

Turkish

Turkish

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6 hours ago, ant said:

Always found it bizarre how many posters spelt his name Goa. Or did it just become an in-joke? 🤷‍♂️

That was top bantz bro

Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

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Posted
9 hours ago, ant said:

Always found it bizarre how many posters spelt his name Goa. Or did it just become an in-joke? 🤷‍♂️

No, just idiots who couldn't be bothered to spell his name properly.

On that note, we currently seem to have a handful of posters or more who think our interim manager is called Tonda Eckhart. 

Umlaut

Umlaut

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Posted
Just now, Sheaf Saint said:

No, just idiots who couldn't be bothered to spell his name properly.

On that note, we currently seem to have a handful of posters or more who think our interim manager is called Tonda Eckhart. 

Becoming bit of a chore learning all these managers names.

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Holmes_and_Watson

Holmes_and_Watson

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5 hours ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Unless they've been in the job for three months, I don't bother these days.

They should all just be called the same name.

If SR are incompetent enough to have to go through so many, we can show our contempt for their approach.

I'd go with "Bwian" as "Wemove Bwian" sounds funny when shouted by the fans. 

A new, ever younger, but still with stubble, pullover and Leipzig experience, Bwian can just appear on the next Monday.

They should also have a "Hi! I'm Bwian" sticker name badge for the press conferences.

 

Edited by Holmes_and_Watson
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Dusic

Dusic

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Posted

The handover from Liebherr to Gao was the catalyst for where we are now IMO. No PL club can survive these days without an owner adding cash.

People say that SR took a stable PL club and sent us downwards butbwe were extremely lucky to survive the season Swansea imploded and were clearly on a general downwards trend when they took charge.

The best things going for him were not positives but more that he didnt do overly negative stuff e.g take money out, stall on selling, get overly involved etc.

 

HarvSFC

HarvSFC

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Relegation under Gao would have definitely been more dangerous than it currently feels. Remember that we always had to sell players in order to buy new ones, usually for half the price. Sounds similar to what we do now, but we wouldn't get Azaz or Fellows under Gao. It is why Hasenhuttl should be applauded for keeping the team up when he was given little to work with. In 2020 we only signed KWP (Funded by Hojbjerg), Salisu, Diallo and Walcott in the summer. Season after we sold Ings, Vestergaard and Lemina for some cash and got Armstrong, Livramento, Perraud, Small and Lyanco in return. We were working with scraps. A relegation would have left us really scraping the barrel, we would have been an unattractive proposition with no budget and would have fast tracked ourselves to where Swansea, Blackburn and Stoke, possibly even where Bolton, Wigan and Reading currently reside. 

At least these days you have hope that SR will one day learn, or hire a proper consultant to advise on how to spend their money correctly. We still made profits on Lambert, Lovren, Clyne, Fonte, Wanyama, Van Dijk, etc. West Ham made a profit on Kudus. Forest will make a profit on Gibbs-White despite the initial fee spent looking large at the time. Signing players in their prime with proper scouting is just as profitable as signing a young player who could develop, or may not.

Ted Bates Statue

Ted Bates Statue

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16 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

On that note, we currently seem to have a handful of posters or more who think our interim manager is called Tonda Eckhart. 

Think you're setting the bar too high. Some posters still haven't learned how to spell the likes of Portvliet, Atkins, Pottechino, Pellegrini, Hassenhutl etc. And these days I feel lucky just to remember vaguely who might be the latest chump in the hot seat.

 

On 14/11/2025 at 13:06, franniesTache said:

What was really interesting about Gao is that one of the reasons he was selected by katharina liebherr is because he was a devout buddhist and with her families christian beliefs she thought that made him more trustworthy and would care more about the wider city of Southampton and not just the club.

I've heard of this mentioned on here before, but I'm always struck by the idea that just because he was super religious she was totally happy to work with him, and overlook the period when he was sufficiently knee-deep in corruption back home that his plea bargain ended up landing one of his lucky associates with the death penalty. I guess she was ok with that bit.

East Kent Saint

East Kent Saint

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Posted
1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

Don't say Chinaman. It's a slur apparently...

Only because an English batsman said “ Fancy getting out to a Chinaman” The bowler was playing for West Indies and of Chinese origin . So the left arm googly became known as a Chinaman ! 

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