Saint Without a Halo

My view too! What saddens me is not so much the players leaving but that our great experiment to buck the trend and be different in the premier league by building a young fit team playing good football and sticking together as a unit has gone and when it was so close to fruition too. We will now be no better than the rest of the "non top six" fielding a group of foreign mercenaries (who will use us as a stage for their talents or to see out their days with a decent pay cheque) supported by a bunch of young up and coming academy talents looking to move on. Our main aim being just to survive and keep the TV money rolling in!

This French Journalists view from what I have understood seems quite closely correlated to the explanation I posted on the Cortese thread as listed below Corteses project was based on a business plan with targeted investment with the aims of improving the football club and by doing so increasing the value of the club and playing assets by more than he invested. He was single minded and ruthless in seeing it to fruition and by all accounts he succeeded quicker than even he thought possible from both a footballing and financial viewpoint This is my take on what might have happened and is purely conjecture based on what I have read and seen in the press and elsewhere however I think it is plausible given the evidence to date. Cortese felt he could do more this year and his job (of optimising the value of the club ML bought) was not yet complete. To do so he needed funds to continue building, however by last year ML's will was finally executed and KL as the main inheritor was now in control of the funds. She saw this further spend as a gamble with her money as further success was not guaranteed.(probably rightly so). At this stage Cortese may well have offered to buy the club off her with investment promised by others. however she probably thought his offer did not fully value the club and she and her advisors felt they could do better at getting her investment returns out of the club than from the Corteses offer. The players and the manager had their doubts about her and her advisors regarding their strategy ambitions and commitment for the club. Hence we are where we are today.

She can declare a dividend of the cash that is there and sell the club without the cash however some of it was yet to be paid but never the less this will be in the asking price and a buyer can raise debt against the future cash so in effect she does take it and a buyer may be in debt by the value of the cash to be generated.

Nothing like a good takeover thread again

Why was it a dream on a house of cards it was based on a business plan with targeted investment with the aims of improving the football club and by doing so increasing the value of the club and playing assets by more than he invested. He was single minded and ruthless in seeing it to fruition and by all accounts he succeeded quicker than even he thought possible from both a footballing and financial viewpoint This is my take on what might have happened and is purely conjecture based on what I have read and seen in the press and elsewhere however I think it is as plausible given the evidence to date. Cortese felt he could do more this year and his job (of optimising the value of the club ML bought) was not yet complete. To do so he needed funds to continue building, however by last year ML's will was finally executed and KL as the main inheritor was now in control of the funds. She saw this further spend as a gamble with her money as further success was not guaranteed.(probably rightly so). At this stage Cortese may well have offered to buy the club off her with investment promised by others. however she probably thought his offer did not fully value the club and she and her advisors felt they could do better at getting her investment returns out of the club than from the Corteses offer. The players and the manager had their doubts about her and her advisors regarding their strategy ambitions and commitment for the club. Hence we are where we are today.

Err he did have authority to invest the money in his role as ML executor and as a result of his investments (which probably were viewed as a sort of gamble by KL) he increased the value substantially of all that was invested. It was only when the investment tap was turned off, before he felt he had totally maximised the value of the club, did he depart. The value of the club and players he left behind are a measure of success both financially and in terms of football however you want to measure it. He felt he could increase the value of the club further, KL probably wanted to cash in some or all of the chips as they were! He couldn't convince her and or her advisors of his plans and as she was then in control of her money (once the will was executed) there was only one winner and the rest is history.

And you know he had a 100% selling record as a fact and that no enquiries whatsoever were made for any of our players in the one and half seasons plus we were in the premier whilst he was there? A bit unlikely seeing that over the last three months every player we have is suddenly wanted! I am pretty sure his plan was not to sell and if he was forced to he would have made do with one or two and would he would know very well how to keep the remainder contented it is not a coincidence the players and the manager liked and respected him!

No pounds were thrown away they were invested in improving the value of the club and its assets. The club and the value of the players we had at the end of last season were worth a lot more than what was invested however you want to do the maths.

He may have spen money whilst an executor but an executors role is to ensure the money is well looked after. The result of spending the money has been to produce a club worth far more than was spent full of expensive assets as we have seen. The difference between him and KL was when to cash in He felt with a bit more spend the value of the club and players would increase more she disagreed the result is history. I personally would have him back any time! He may have had his shortcomings as a person but as a Chief Executive he had few equals getting us up from L1 to 3rd in the premier in just over 4 years. He had a strategy and a plan that worked and the drive, will and commitment to make all the hard decisions to see it through. Compare that to this lot who couldn't convince a 19 year old with only 23 appearances to his name give us another year! No comparison

Lambert joined Liverpool as he didn't want to be the one that turns the lights out! it looks like Lambert Mopo etc were all aware what Reed was up to and all said WTF lets go then!

What makes you say that he is only 1) in his last year of contract and hasn't signed a new one 2) He wants to return to his boyhood club If he was ours he would have been gone before the world cup even started Christ if we cant close this one what sort of hope do we have on any other!

I need to do some wining might take my mind off what is going on at Saints!

So why cant we work on the basis of one out one in then? Is it that difficult given all our players were under contract!

I think Cortese went on to achieve it and what we are seeing here is his team and ideals being dismantled! why do you believe this lot with their performance to date can match what he did! Whatever we may think of him as a person there was no doubt he was exceptional, he had a vision and a plan and let nothing get in the way of getting there! What signs are there that Ralph and co are anywhere near as committed or even determind if they can't even get Chambers to stay a year longer?

Now how about that for a thought!

Reading Reeds statement it smells of Lowes Dutch experiment all over again! But this time in the premier, Les believes we will be saved by Harrisom Reed, Targett , Gallagher, Ward Prowse, Isgrove, Turnbell, McQueen etc. Would love to hear Cortese's take on this, he only wanted half the team made up of academy players and was laughed at then! Looks like it will be at least 75% academy graduates very soon! Cortese obviously signed a non disclosure agreement on leaving! Probably the only good thing the board has achieved to date! These were obviously the great players we had scouted who were desperate to come to our club. They say history repeats itself I for one hope it dosent

What is the point of a club statement everyone of them has lied through their teeth every time a microphone was put in front of them! We don't need to sell We will kick on and strengthen our squad We want to keep our young players Good players are Queuing up to come to this club We will be clear and transparent at all times we are aiming for Europe All monies will be reinvested We will sort out Mopos contract at the end of the season and on and on it goes!

Nice plan but assumes it is so easy to get out of the Championship! Have a word with Leeds!

it is the yo strategy not the yo yo one!

Why do we keep assuming the money will be reinvested what else where we told that has actually turned out to be true?

Err why didn't he see his future at Southampton? answer that Mr Reed it is your job to convince him and others there is one! Ten green bottles (or red and white in this instance) standing on the wall .........five green bottles ..............

Do you really believe over 100m will be spent on the club? also if we go down are finances are far from sustainable!

or the head less chicken as described further above in the thread from a Mali employee re the strategy for the Group following ML's untimely death.

yes it does it is added to the value of the club at sale or can be used as collateral to borrow money against!

All the evidence to date points to this! Here is my take NC's option of spend more improve the team increase the price of the club, fan base and assets and sell higher KL and advisors view that NC's plan was a gamble. Better to cash the assets in whilst they still have value and sell the club for a lot less Basically NC was up for the gamble KL was not (it was her money after all) however the danger she faces is that the value of the club could drop by more than the cash raked in on the players especially if Koeman fails to keep us up! Also its possible the KL board only wanted to make a few sales however it was so inexperienced that once they started selling they did not know how to stop the rot setting in!