Sport Republic

[Saint86]

53 minutes ago, Gingeletiss said:

If you go and buy a Roll Royce for 200g, then sell the doors, the tyres, the engine. Do not expect to get 200g when you want to sell it again.

Interesting analogy. However i think you will find that the doors and engine from a Rolls Royce are each worth more than Carillo and Hoedt combined 🙃

Edited 5 May, 2021 by Saint86

[MarkSFC]

The price or value more accurately of Southampton FC is driven by performance and the market forces. Buying a football club is a high risk investment. High risk investments come with disclaimers about the value of your investment potentially going up or down. 

In this instance I see no reason to argue against the fact it is worth less than he paid for it. 120m seems too cheap, 250m seems too much. 

 

I hope we can find a new investor who has more than "making some cash" on his mind for the club. I think we deserve a break in that regard....

[Toussaint]

4 hours ago, Saint Billy said:

If I went to my local Chinese takeaway and offered half the price I'm pretty sure what the reaction be. 

They may be glad of the business if they had recently gained a reputation for giving their customers food poisoning.

[redkeith]

One of the new reforms the EPL and EFL need to bring in is a total ban on leveraged takeovers . No cash, no deal. 

I don't see how a club like Burnley  are any better of with a new owner and a massive debt than they were with a skint owner,  It is the equivalent of mortgaging your house to pay for a holiday. 

[killer fan]

We need to get bought at the end of season otherwise we will go down next season need a striker two full backs and centre midfielder 

[Wade Garrett]

Things might start to move now we’re mathematically safe.

[Toussaint]

On 09/05/2021 at 09:36, killer fan said:

We need to get bought at the end of season otherwise we will go down next season need a striker two full backs and centre midfielder 

Depends who buys us...

[Toussaint]

5 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

Things might start to move now we’re mathematically safe.

Hopefully, and even more so it’s an owner with the best interests of the club at heart 

[Shance]

As long as it's not DaGrosa.

[Wade Garrett]

17 minutes ago, Shance said:

As long as it's not DaGrosa.

Hopefully, the fact that he was plastered over the media means he’s not a serious contender, same as the bloke from Luxembourg.

 

[Tamesaint]

I have just read Simon Jordan's book about his time as owner of Crystal Palace.  He comes over as an arrogant, conceited prick but it is the economics of the game which are most interesting.

An astute businessman, during his 9/10 year spell at Palace he lost £30 million of his fortune. That was in an era and division when you could get decent players for £1 million. 

To get a "decent" owner woth deep enough pockets who could make a difference is going to be very difficult. Jordan is a lifelong Palace fan who spent a small fortune but failed to achieve much. To get one who has the club's interest at heart is going to be well nigh impossible.  

Edited 11 May, 2021 by Tamesaint

[DT]

19 minutes ago, Tamesaint said:

I have just read Simon Jordan's book about his time as owner of Crystal Palace.  He comes over as an arrogant, conceited prick but it is the economics of the game which are most interesting.

An astute businessman, during his 9/10 year spell at Palace he lost £30 million of his fortune. That was in an era and division when you could get decent players for £1 million. 

To get a "decent" owner woth deep enough pockets who could make a difference is going to be very difficult. Jordan is a lifelong Palace fan who spent a small fortune but failed to achieve much. To get one who has the club's interest at heart is going to be well nigh impossible.  

We probably thought that before the Liebherrs but guess we got very lucky indeed. Personally hope that we approach Red Bull as there must be something to deal with there given Ralph and what looks like a decent-ish fit for very little outlay to expand their presence in football. Obviously much better to not be a 'franchise' for the purists, but can only see trouble ahead for clubs like ours in present climate and with such a poor squad.

 

[Tamesaint]

23 minutes ago, DT said:

We probably thought that before the Liebherrs but guess we got very lucky indeed. Personally hope that we approach Red Bull as there must be something to deal with there given Ralph and what looks like a decent-ish fit for very little outlay to expand their presence in football. Obviously much better to not be a 'franchise' for the purists, but can only see trouble ahead for clubs like ours in present climate and with such a poor squad.

 

I agree. The Red Bull option may not be perfect but it would offer some sort of stability and should be preferable to a hitherto unknown. American hedge fund or reclusive Chinese businessman. 

I have no idea if Red Bull is an option. We can but hope.

[JustinSFC]

Knowing our luck we'll end up with that wanker Conor McGregor.

Seems hell bent running his mouth off wanting to buy a club.

He's got money to most of us, but In terms of football club ownership championship and above he's a peasant.

[Viking Saint]

54 minutes ago, JustinSFC said:

Knowing our luck we'll end up with that wanker Conor McGregor.

Seems hell bent running his mouth off wanting to buy a club.

He's got money to most of us, but In terms of football club ownership championship and above he's a peasant.

Don't stress. He's shooting his mouth off but realistically, he couldn't afford that shower down the road.......

[Shance]

1 hour ago, JustinSFC said:

Knowing our luck we'll end up with that wanker Conor McGregor.

Seems hell bent running his mouth off wanting to buy a club.

He's got money to most of us, but In terms of football club ownership championship and above he's a peasant.

Lol. Don't worry about him. He doesn't have enough money to buy a PL club. 

[SuperSAINT]

12 minutes ago, Viking Saint said:

Don't stress. He's shooting his mouth off but realistically, he couldn't afford that shower down the road.......

Couldn’t buy a prem club — but he could afford a league one club.

[Dusic]

Seeing how takeovers of Sheff Wed, Derby and Birmingham have gone it really does show that there aren't many deals which go spectacularly well. We got so lucky with ML, less so with Gao but I would suggest the latter is the norm and the former the exception.

Once something does happen at Saints I will remain very sceptical.

[SuperSAINT]

1 minute ago, Dusic said:

Seeing how takeovers of Sheff Wed, Derby and Birmingham have gone it really does show that there aren't many deals which go spectacularly well. We got so lucky with ML, less so with Gao but I would suggest the latter is the norm and the former the exception.

Once something does happen at Saints I will remain very sceptical.

Burnley, too.  Haven’t they leveraged the club with debt?

[SuperSAINT]

Ratcliffe actually mentions us, here:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/manchester-united-jim-ratcliffe-fred-20441487.amp

Ironically, about spotting young talent. 
 

* Edit: Scratch that.  It’s a recent article, but uses 2 year old article as source. 

Edited 11 May, 2021 by SuperSAINT

[miserableoldgit]

Whilst I would enjoy the ride if a Sheik or Russian Oligarch came in and started throwing their money around buying over-priced players, which for a club such as ours can and in tears, I am not as down on Gao as many others are. OK, he doesn't pump in money from his own pockets but he doesn't take money out of the club, allows the board to get on with running the club (with, as Semmons says, all money that the club makes, going back in) and generally doesn't seem it interfere too much. I think that things could be a lot worse, but until anything "better" (whatever that is) comes along, we are where we are.

[Suhari]

10 minutes ago, miserableoldgit said:

Whilst I would enjoy the ride if a Sheik or Russian Oligarch came in and started throwing their money around buying over-priced players, which for a club such as ours can and in tears, I am not as down on Gao as many others are. OK, he doesn't pump in money from his own pockets but he doesn't take money out of the club, allows the board to get on with running the club (with, as Semmons says, all money that the club makes, going back in) and generally doesn't seem it interfere too much. I think that things could be a lot worse, but until anything "better" (whatever that is) comes along, we are where we are.

Agreed. It could be worse.

Would be so nice to see a little investment from him though. Chuck us £30M a year for a signing!

Was the 'trying to get Walcott as a present to the fans' thing (back before Theo went to Everton) proven to be bollix?

[Convict Colony]

32 minutes ago, miserableoldgit said:

Whilst I would enjoy the ride if a Sheik or Russian Oligarch came in and started throwing their money around buying over-priced players, which for a club such as ours can and in tears, I am not as down on Gao as many others are. OK, he doesn't pump in money from his own pockets but he doesn't take money out of the club, allows the board to get on with running the club (with, as Semmons says, all money that the club makes, going back in) and generally doesn't seem it interfere too much. I think that things could be a lot worse, but until anything "better" (whatever that is) comes along, we are where we are.

My summary of Gao.

He escaped corruption charges in china by grassing up others to save himself.

Xi Jinping then declared his love of football and to see the improvement in the national teams position.

Gao then used this as both an attempt to curry favour and move capital abroad took a personal loan via a Hong Kong bank to buy 80% and was due to pay the remaining. 20% i believe the next year.

Unfortunately for him chinese politicians were then horrified about the volume of cash flowing out of China (and therefore cannot be controlled)and roadblocked any further movements, consequently Gao couldn't get a loan/buy the remaining 20%.

Being the lucky sort of fella he is his Lander business then had a sharp decline and was bailed out by a regional bank owned by the central bank of China which now has majority stake of his business.

This has left Gao in a bit of a pickle, he is asset rich with us but cash poor in china and in the govts pocket.

The unseen player in this is the Chinese central bank, if they tell him to sell it at a loss he will as that is a regular approach for them directing individuals and "corporations".

He used DealGlobe to buy us apparently and their backers are Shanghai based and one of their main backers is Wind Info who apparently who are involved in 90% of the financial transactions in china but apparently have a website which is created by someone whose never done one - https://www.wind.com.cn/en/aboutus.html.

So in summary i don't think Gao has much of a say who he sells too as some would think so i think it is more about both the investor's risk tolerance and a suitable covid price I am sure the discussion is how to factor into the buying price this short term (hopefully) cashflow to the asset - hopefully some finance ninja can explain how that could happen. 

[Disco Stu]

https://www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11095/12303735/mexican-group-planning-premier-league-buy

Alejandro Irarragorri, founder of Grupo Orlegi, looking for a club.

 

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/who-alejandro-irarragorri-multi-millionaire-eyeing-stunning-newcastle-united-takoever-920942

Looks like he's been looking for a while. This claims he's worth $450m.

Edited 12 May, 2021 by Disco Stu
wrong currency symbol

[Antrimsaint]

On 09/05/2021 at 09:36, killer fan said:

We need to get bought at the end of season otherwise we will go down next season need a striker two full backs and centre midfielder 

I don’t mind going down. I much prefer the lower leagues. Much more fun than superbowl soccerball premier league. Its actually so dull. Give  me boundry park or prenton park any day of the week. Old man  rant over😳

[skintsaint]

3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

https://www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11095/12303735/mexican-group-planning-premier-league-buy

Alejandro Irarragorri, founder of Grupo Orlegi, looking for a club.

 

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/who-alejandro-irarragorri-multi-millionaire-eyeing-stunning-newcastle-united-takoever-920942

Looks like he's been looking for a while. This claims he's worth £450m.

image going from Chinese to Mexican owners.........would be the Saints way.

[Fan The Flames]

On 05/05/2021 at 12:26, redkeith said:

One of the new reforms the EPL and EFL need to bring in is a total ban on leveraged takeovers . No cash, no deal. 

I don't see how a club like Burnley  are any better of with a new owner and a massive debt than they were with a skint owner,  It is the equivalent of mortgaging your house to pay for a holiday. 

It the equivalent of a buy to let. Someone else is paying the mortgage and the asset increases in value over time as well. So with little to no on going payments you can multiply your initial outlay.

For a club like Man U it's a bit easier, they have less chance of going down and more people will want to buy them when you want to get your money out.

It's more risky with your Burnleys and Southamptons.

[JustinSFC]

7 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

https://www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11095/12303735/mexican-group-planning-premier-league-buy

Alejandro Irarragorri, founder of Grupo Orlegi, looking for a club.

 

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/who-alejandro-irarragorri-multi-millionaire-eyeing-stunning-newcastle-united-takoever-920942

Looks like he's been looking for a while. This claims he's worth £450m.

That's $450m USD or about £300M quid our money and that's nowhere near enough to own and run a Premier League football club.

That was in 2018 mind you, so if we added another £200m on top of that figure I still don't think it's enough, without being too fastidious about it.

 

Edited 12 May, 2021 by JustinSFC

[HarvSFC]

Man City, Chelsea and Leicester have obviously had dream takeovers previously.

Everton, Leeds, Aston Villa, Brighton and Wolves (with the dodgy Mendes links) have had good takeovers, allowing them to compete with the level they were previously below.

Hopefully there’s still a good one for us, but as mentioned, there’s also the likes of Bolton, Blackburn, Sheffield Wednesday, Portsmouth 🤢, and Newcastle (although a long time ago now) to counter the above. 
 

[SuperSAINT]

I assume the just announced TV roll-over deal would further help smooth things over for any prospective buyers.

[Convict Colony]

Yeah I'm hopeful we will hear something soon. 

Premier League status secure

Guaranteed TV money

UK looks on track for attendance next season.

[DT]

4 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Yeah I'm hopeful we will hear something soon. 

Premier League status secure

Guaranteed TV money

UK looks on track for attendance next season.

Just need to add playing squad deep enough and good enough to survive and we will be rich pickings

[Suhari]

Not seen any comments from Big Kat. I wonder what her input is on all this.

Could she be tempted to buy back the stake she sold at a discount?

[Saint Billy]

5 hours ago, Suhari said:

Not seen any comments from Big Kat. I wonder what her input is on all this.

Could she be tempted to buy back the stake she sold at a discount?

Not sure that would help anyone. 

[Matthew Le God]

As this thread is about any takeover and not just one by DaGrosa... shouldn't DaGrosa be removed from the thread title? 🤔😇

[Dark Munster]

24 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

As this thread is about any takeover and not just one by DaGrosa... shouldn't DaGrosa be removed from the thread title? 🤔😇

"Saints Takeover Saga"

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, Dark Munster said:

"Saints Takeover Saga"

[SaintLondon]

The Derby takeover is now off... It seems perhaps the fit and proper person test is finally becoming more stringent? Or did he just have no cash? 

Hopefully though it'll mean that whilst it might take longer for us to get taken over, when we do, it might not be to a skinflint - or is that wishful thinking? Probably. 

[SuperSAINT]

23 minutes ago, SaintLondon said:

The Derby takeover is now off... It seems perhaps the fit and proper person test is finally becoming more stringent? Or did he just have no cash? 

Hopefully though it'll mean that whilst it might take longer for us to get taken over, when we do, it might not be to a skinflint - or is that wishful thinking? Probably. 

Derby have really been taken for a ride.  They are now back in talks with American investors. 

[Doctoroncall]

On 11/05/2021 at 23:12, Disco Stu said:

https://www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11095/12303735/mexican-group-planning-premier-league-buy

Alejandro Irarragorri, founder of Grupo Orlegi, looking for a club.

 

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/who-alejandro-irarragorri-multi-millionaire-eyeing-stunning-newcastle-united-takoever-920942

Looks like he's been looking for a while. This claims he's worth $450m.

Now the South American market has opened up, it could be an good opportunity. Seems to have some good synergies in the way we used to do things regarding research, support and recruitment. 

[Depressed of Shirley]

1 hour ago, SaintLondon said:

The Derby takeover is now off... It seems perhaps the fit and proper person test is finally becoming more stringent? Or did he just have no cash? 

Hopefully though it'll mean that whilst it might take longer for us to get taken over, when we do, it might not be to a skinflint - or is that wishful thinking? Probably. 

No Cash

[Fan The Flames]

1 hour ago, SaintLondon said:

The Derby takeover is now off... It seems perhaps the fit and proper person test is finally becoming more stringent? Or did he just have no cash? 

Hopefully though it'll mean that whilst it might take longer for us to get taken over, when we do, it might not be to a skinflint - or is that wishful thinking? Probably. 

Or is it because they stayed up and so the price wouldn't drop any further.

[Fan The Flames]

17 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

"Saints Takeover Saga"

The ending is likely to be as shit as GoT.

[hypochondriac]

No details and no one I've ever spoken to before but a relative of mine has links to someone very wealthy in Southampton and he's told him there's an American who mixes in similar circles to him who is looking to buy the club and things should move forward now we are safe. Sorry I don't have any more details than that. 

[BILLY]

Hope it’s true .......... PL place confirmed etc.  Need a deal done sharpish to give Ralph a chance to refresh the squad etc and hopefully try and keep hold of Ings, Vest etc

[Lee On Solent Saint]

If I was Semmens, I would be straight on the phone to that Spotify fella. Doesn't seem he is going to get very far with Arsenal.

[S-Clarke]

35 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

If I was Semmens, I would be straight on the phone to that Spotify fella. Doesn't seem he is going to get very far with Arsenal.

Nothing to do with Semmens though, it's Gao who'd need to be on the phone.

I think stuff is happening in the background though, but Gao will only sell to who gives him the best value, he won't care about their plans for this club. We just have to hope we get lucky and the fit and proper owners test actually works this time.

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

We just have to hope we get lucky and the fit and proper owners test actually works this time.

The only issue with Gao is he hasn't invested, but I can't see why that should stop him being an owner. Sure it would have been great if he invested in the club, but he hasn't been a disaster by any means. He has allowed for seemingly good appointments in management positions like Semmens and Crocker and seemingly allows them to get on with the running of the club without detrimental interference.

Edited 16 May, 2021 by Matthew Le God

[Bakovnetski]

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

No details and no one I've ever spoken to before but a relative of mine has links to someone very wealthy in Southampton and he's told him there's an American who mixes in similar circles to him who is looking to buy the club and things should move forward now we are safe. Sorry I don't have any more details than that. 

Paul Allen?

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, Bakovnetski said:

Paul Allen?

I doubt it...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/obituaries/paul-allen-dead.html