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EBS1980

By EBS1980,
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Badger

Badger

Posted
Posted
Southampton FC is becoming less and less like the Saints I began supporting over 50 years ago. Chinese ownership with a touch of Swiss, can’t possibly have the emotional feelings most of us grew up with. If it wasn’t for the Academy it would hard to see much connection to Hampshire or the City except for matches being played here. The sponsor is just the latest example of the disconnect. It’s not just this club that’s affected and shows why so many people are ignoring their local team to become glory supporters of whichever top six club takes their fancy.

 

 

Some true words here Prof although rather than support Saints some might also find a more local team to support, I've known a few Saints fans who feeling disengaged with things at SMS are now following Eastleigh

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Gordon Mockles

Gordon Mockles

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Posted
Chinese sports company trying to break into the UK market.

Biggest sponsorship deal in the clubs history according to the OS - https://southamptonfc.com/news/2019-05-13/southampton-football-club-ld-sports-new-front-of-shirt-sponsor

 

According to the OS. That’s the club that has not revealed the value of the deal so their words mean nothing and they’ve gone back on their word in the transfer window three times so I wouldn’t believe a word that comes out the mouth of this prevaricating club.

 

It’s a non-existent company so a start up and it apparently ties in with the development of the youth overseas which they are trying to set up in China. Nothing wrong with that but they also need to look at priorities. There’s no point developing decent players or prospects if they haven’t got a decent league to play in.

 

It will be refreshing if they actually invested in the first team squad which is the most critical element yet they seem to do everything but that and they’ve ridden their luck two or three times but they won’t survive again if they keep shutting their eyes & crossing their fingers and hoping for the best and behaving incompetently and with this level of complacency.

 

We lost Pochettino & Koeman due to boardroom arrogance & stupidity. Let’s hope this sponsorship puts money into the club and and Gao finally invests in the first team. I won’t hold my breath. This mute & disingenuous owner has not done a subtle thing to breed confidence. The opposite. Under his tenure he has not spoken to the fans and the club have constantly lied. Is that the way we intend to proceed? I just hope the sponsorship it’s not related to Gao as I currently have no faith in this charlatan. Prove me wrong and I will change my tune but so far, he’s done absolutely nothing of merit other than removing Ralph K and Les ‘sp*nk all the funds’ Reed. I’m assuming the appointment of Ralph Hasenhütl was done by the footballing board. We desperately need guidance and a director of football as our current board, like our squad, are woefully short of footballing and competitive prowess for this level of football.

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Gordon Mockles

Gordon Mockles

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Thinking out loud, is this a way of Gao pumping money into the club without falling foul of the FFP rules...?

 

Do you honestly think Gao has done anything to suggest that is in his character? The Chinese do not like to spend money, they like to make money. I admire your optimism but it is misplaced and unrealistic. We are just leverage for Gao expanding his property empire in the west.

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Gordon Mockles

Gordon Mockles

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Reeds gone, Krueger honourably saw out his contract and said the next phase of our development will be a major move forward. Most of our transfers are set up, we are offloading the overpaid surplus. There is going to be a shake up in the boardroom that Hasenhuttl approves of. Hasenhuttl is bringing in his own coaching staff, Virgin have extended their contract for three years. We are putting extra emphasis on the academy. The Lander contact will allow Gao to invest more money in the club.

Top ten at least next season. After a brief holiday Hasenhuttl will start the close season early so we can hit the ground running.

What a bunch of ignorant bed wetters some of our fans are.

 

Have you been watching too many Carlsberg adverts on YouTube ?! ????

 

Carlsberg don’t do SOUTHAMPTON FC pre-seasons, but if they did.......

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whelk

whelk

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Maybe being naive but don’t see why people are wetting themselves over this. The sort of sh1t bores me anyway in same way geeks analysing tactics to death.

PL is sh1te but hey you all want to be it and this is what you will get.

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trousers

trousers

Posted
Posted
Do you honestly think Gao has done anything to suggest that is in his character? The Chinese do not like to spend money, they like to make money. I admire your optimism but it is misplaced and unrealistic. We are just leverage for Gao expanding his property empire in the west.
I think you might be mistaking me for someone who thinks through stuff before posting nonsense on an internet football forum... ;)
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Batman

Batman

Posted
Posted (edited)
Internationally renowned coaches :lol:

 

Then goes on to list a load of chancers coaching pre-teens how to dribble round cones :lol:

 

we did poach that chap from Garforth Town once.

#inspired

Edited by Batman
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CB Fry

CB Fry

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Posted
The bottom line until there is a satisfactory response from SFC regarding this sponsor, fans should not buy the new shirts !
We have some experts on this forum when it comes to running a gold-standard effective replica shirt boycott campaign.

 

I can't remember all the details but I do know that lesson one is to get yourself down the Saints store and purchase a shirt on the day it comes out.

 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

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Midfield_General

Midfield_General

Posted
Posted

As someone who is catching up on this thread - what is the established connection between https://www.ledong6666.com/ and the new sponsors?

 

All the press releases refer to their site being http://www.ldsports.uk/. That is a holding page, which fits with the story about them preparing for their launch in the summer.

 

Apologies if I've missed it somewhere, but what's the source of the link between that and whatever dodginess was going on at https://www.ledong6666.com/?

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trousers

trousers

Posted
Posted (edited)
If there was a web site at https://www.ledong6666.com/ then it isn't there now. It appears to have been taken down.
So, does the fact they've taken down the 'fake' website add weight to any conspiracy theories or pour cold water on them...? Something to hide...?

 

Anyway, a big hello to the 'LD Sports' person who has seemingly been reading this forum for the last 24 hours :)

 

P.s. hope the squirrel is ok

Edited by trousers
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shurlock

shurlock

Posted
Posted (edited)
As someone who is catching up on this thread - what is the established connection between https://www.ledong6666.com/ and the new sponsors?

 

All the press releases refer to their site being http://www.ldsports.uk/. That is a holding page, which fits with the story about them preparing for their launch in the summer.

 

Apologies if I've missed it somewhere, but what's the source of the link between that and whatever dodginess was going on at https://www.ledong6666.com/?

 

The company logos and branding on the Chinese site are exactly the same as the English language site under construction. Which leads to the conclusion that it is either the same company with sites in Chinese and English or our friends and sponsors at ldsports.uk have stumbled on exactly the same logo and branding. If so, maybe the IP lawyers at ledong6666.com -I’m sure a company with 2000 employees has an in-house legal team- should be alerted to this :lol:

Edited by shurlock
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John Boy Saint

John Boy Saint

Posted
Posted

All seems a wizzard wheeze, just hope we finesse this shenanigans with the same aplomb Etihad FC:.........sorry Man City have. The FA will have a field day with us if it’s all a bit shonky, as City slipped through their fingers so with questions about our ownership already on the table, if this turns out to be a bit of money chicanery the magnafiying glasses will be out. Remember when we went into admin, Lowe thought he could use the loophole Derby used in points deduction avoidance, turned out the FL had pulled that one shut and Malwhinney burgeoned us with a baseball bat with a smile on his face.

 

Football has become show business, the money swilling around in it is obscene alone, the only real link to the good old days are the 22 blokes out on the pitch kicking a bag of air about, and us numpties cheering on from the stands. We can all have a bang of the drum on here, but quite honestly the drum has no tension in the skin and it’s stuffed full of pillows.

 

Looking at some of the stuff swilling around these new guys, it does all look very Chinese. I buy from China we go to the trade shows out there, you see something from a new company, you take a closer look, the heavily photoshopped images of Factories are impressive, the infrastructure to manufacture and back story likewise, more often than not reality is distant relative of the imagery. That’s not say what is being produced isn’t top notch and sound as more often it is. Everything is above board, just to Western eyes reality makes some people go Hmmm.

 

Ain’t nothing any of us can do about any of it - if we win on the pitch and steam up the league - the majority won’t give a tinkers cuss about what goes on behind closed doors at SMS and beyond.

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edprice1984

edprice1984

Posted
Posted
For the squirrel or the sponsorship deal?

 

It would be interesting to compare and contrast this thread with the Skate forums when they were bought by the Lithuanian crime syndicate or the Ice cream seller or the bloke that didn't exist or the son of a wanted arms dealer...

 

I know that fans can do b*gger all to effect things now, but it's still nice to see the majority of Saints fans (not only on here but on social media) do have some semblance of a moral compass and worry about the state of our club.

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trousers

trousers

Posted
Posted
It would be interesting to compare and contrast this thread with the Skate forums when they were bought by the Lithuanian crime syndicate or the Ice cream seller or the bloke that didn't exist or the son of a wanted arms dealer...

 

I know that fans can do b*gger all to effect things now, but it's still nice to see the majority of Saints fans (not only on here but on social media) do have some semblance of a moral compass and worry about the state of our club.

 

Was thinking the same earlier. I wonder how much of the 'head in sand' mentality of Pompey fans during that era will be airbrushed from the forthcoming in-house documentary....? https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/football/portsmouth-fc/the-portsmouth-film-which-its-makers-hope-can-inspire-disillusioned-fans-to-save-their-clubs-1-8921594

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trousers

trousers

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

Ha... nicely sums up the first 4 pages on here.... *waves to Jonathan White*

 

This bit caught my eye:

 

"Others speculated that the Justin Tan quoted in the club statement as business development manager of LD Sports was the same person who works for Shanghai-based digital agency Mailman. The company have confirmed this to not be the case."

 

So, just a coincidence that the Justin Tan (working for Mailman) who was involved with Saints a few months ago (https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/12/11/southampton-fc-and-tlcbet-roll-out-video-series-with-chinese-influencers) is not the same Justin Tan that works for 'LD Sports' (https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17636029.southampton-to-be-sponsored-by-ld-sports/)...?

 

'Justin' and 'Tan' must be quite a common name combination I guess...

Edited by trousers
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jasoneuelllfanclub

jasoneuelllfanclub

Posted
Posted

Prof Simon Chadwick seems to know his stuff and is trying to dig deeper into this deal.

 

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick?s=09

 

He suggests Asian countries are looking for trade routes into Europe which is why southampton may be of strategic interest.

 

https://offthepitch.com/a/expert-southamptons-record-setting-sponsorship-carries-hallmarks-chinese-state-influence

 

Murky stuff if you ask me.

 

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

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trousers

trousers

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

Hmm... the plot does indeed thicken...

 

Southampton’s record-setting sponsorship carries hallmarks of Chinese state influence

 

Southampton’s record-breaking shirt sponsor deal with Chinese company, LD Sports, raises the eyebrows of Professor Simon Chadwick.

 

He describes it as no ordinary deal. When Chinese companies make big investments abroad, these are subject to state approval to avoid capital outflow.

 

According to Professor Chadwick, this means that this deal will have been approved by the Chinese authorities and that it is aligned with state interests.

 

“What is particularly surprising is that LD has yet to launch, though still the company is being allowed to spend money overseas on a high profile, expensive sponsorship contract. This implies that the sponsor, possibly the club too, is connected to important state decision makers and has been able to persuade them to consent to this deal,” said Professor Chadwick from Sports Enterprise at Salford University in Manchester.

 

That a company that has yet to launch may make a record-setting investment shows that Southampton is much more than a football club to the Chinese, explains Professor Chadwick:

 

“This deal is the epitome of how China conducts its business - football is a means to an end and not an end in itself. One suspects that the club's owners (and their probable links to Chinese government) always had it in mind that Southampton would form the hub for a network of investments.”

 

As explained previously by offthepitch.com, Southampton as a city has strategic significance as Britain’s second-largest deep-sea port and the biggest port for trade with countries outside the EU. The city also has strong infrastructure links to the rest of the country.

 

“One reason for this could be that LD may be seen in China as being capable of generating net inward revenue flows that justify whatever expenditure the company is making. This could give the Chinese a foothold in the acquisition and distribution of English football content.

 

“Indeed, one wonders whether the long-term goal of this sponsorship deal is motivated by China's intention to acquire the Premier League's domestic rights in the UK. This is a deal worth watching in some detail, as I suspect that it is not just a short-term arrangement involving the placement of a name on a shirt,” concluded Professor Chadwick.

 

Alas, no mention of the fate of the squirrel sadly :(

Edited by trousers
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angelman

angelman

Posted
Posted

Well one thing to think about, is that we might not go into administration quite so easily if the Chinese Government is involved. Would lose face doing so.

 

But I have to say that the geopolitics don't really bother me too much. Everything in the UK seems to be for sale to who ever comes along, so that they can make profit out of us for themselves and their shareholders. Does it matter hugely if it they are Chinese, Arab, European, American or anything else? I know that China is portrayed as the boogeyman while America is our BFF, but really, what really is the difference in the ownership of say Man Utd or Liverpool to us? Henry and Glazers probably can make a decent profit out of their sport franchise, while our owners are maybe making a profit in different businesses. The Chinese are clever and often see the bigger picture - it seems that Saints is a cog in the bigger picture.

 

And if we all dislike it, get fed up with it, or whatever, then there is a choice to walk away. The sun will still get up in the east and set in the west.

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SNSUN

SNSUN

Posted
Posted
All very muddying, I think what's best for everybody here is we shoot the squirrel and take it out of the equation.

 

We could've fed it to Freddie Starr who doesn't mind rodent cuisine, but we're a few days too late for that... :lol:

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IronCitySaint

IronCitySaint

Posted
Posted

This deal is awesome. We now have a dodgy, invisible Chinese sponsor to add to a dodgy, invisible Chinese owner. Good thing we don't have all our eggs in one basket when it all goes tits up.

 

I am in China at present and this makes great conversation. Nobody here has ever heard of the aforementioned dodgy owner and he is as big a nobody in his home country as he is in Southampton. A quick search on the Chinese internet yielded quite a few smirks from those doing the searching.

 

The squirrel is our big summer replacement for Charlie Austin.

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