Sport Republic

[CB Fry]

18 minutes ago, Christophenburg said:

They don't.

Melbourne Hearts were renamed Melbourne City and their badge changed in 2014. Their kit was finally changed in 2017 (it's city blue not sky blue due to a technicality).

Club Atlético Torque changed their name and badge in 2020 - they're Montevideo City Torque now.

Mumbai City were already called Mumbai City before City Football Group purchased the majority stake, but in 2020 changed their home strip colour changed to sky/city blue to match the rest of the group.

New York City was obviously designed from scratch to match Man City.

Lommel SK and Troyes AC are the only exceptions, but they're both comparatively new acquisitions so that may change.

The rest of City Football Group's clubs are majority owned by others.

I didn't realise quite how many sky-blue kit wearing, Etihad sponsored "City" clubs there were. Mad. 

So much for clubs retaining their identity.

[Tamesaint]

11 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Genuine question, and this is about any owners of football clubs so not specifically our new lot, but what's in it for them?  I can understand the vanity project where some mega rich person just wants a bit of fun and I can understand the old school doing it for the community reasons, but when it's a commercial operation then is there really that much money to be made out of football?  There's the old adage that if you want to make a small fortune out of football, start with a large one.  That seems to still hold true - has anyone made serious wedge out of owning a club? 

I reckon we could probably get to the stage where we could get Europa League football every other season and we'd need to invest a bit to get there but maybe not huge amounts.  Thing is that to stay at that level we'd need to reinvest anything we made (and Europa league isn't that lucrative anyway).  Same goes with transfers - obviously there's money to be made by picking up good young players, developing them and selling at a big price but you have to factor in that not all of those good young players will make it so at least some of that profit will go on relatively over priced youngsters that didn't fulfil their potential.  So, yeah, some money to be made but probably not that much.  I guess if you're a success then you can recoup or make some money when you sell the club but none of this is screaming get rich quick. 

Maybe some of you can enlighten me because I genuinely don't understand why people want to own football clubs to make money.  If I had that much money then I think I would set myself up as a bank and lend clubs the money rather than owning them - that seems far more lucrative.  Anyway, I'm not knocking the new guys - they seem decent enough.

The Leibher family have certainly made a lot of money out of football clubs.

For a total outlay of c £30 million (initial purchase and subsequent investment) they had a return of £200 million plus and still kept 20% of their investment. I stand to be corrected but I think that they had previously made money on the purchase and subsequent sale of a club in Austria. 

 

 

 

[revolution saint]

3 minutes ago, Tamesaint said:

The Leibher family have certainly made a lot of money out of football clubs.

For a total outlay of c £30 million (initial purchase and subsequent investment) they had a return of £200 million plus and still kept 20% of their investment. I stand to be corrected but I think that they had previously made money on the purchase and subsequent sale of a club in Austria. 

 

 

 

Yep, they probably did and that's fair enough but it's an exception to the rule.   At least as far as I know anyway.  I guess you can argue that we're under valued when considering other prem clubs so perhaps there is a decent return to be made but I'm not sure there's the same room to increase our value in the same way picking up a league one club with a premier league stadium and fanbase was.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 hour ago, Matthew Le God said:

You can rule it out, the FA's rules won't allow such a name change in England. 

Plus it is entirely different to Red Bull changing club's names. They change the name of a club to help advertise their Red Bull brand. Sport Republic is an investment vehicle, not a brand in the same way with Sport Rebulic branded goods to sell.

They allowed MK Dons

[Sheaf Saint]

38 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Genuine question, and this is about any owners of football clubs so not specifically our new lot, but what's in it for them?  I can understand the vanity project where some mega rich person just wants a bit of fun and I can understand the old school doing it for the community reasons, but when it's a commercial operation then is there really that much money to be made out of football?  There's the old adage that if you want to make a small fortune out of football, start with a large one.  That seems to still hold true - has anyone made serious wedge out of owning a club? 

I reckon we could probably get to the stage where we could get Europa League football every other season and we'd need to invest a bit to get there but maybe not huge amounts.  Thing is that to stay at that level we'd need to reinvest anything we made (and Europa league isn't that lucrative anyway).  Same goes with transfers - obviously there's money to be made by picking up good young players, developing them and selling at a big price but you have to factor in that not all of those good young players will make it so at least some of that profit will go on relatively over priced youngsters that didn't fulfil their potential.  So, yeah, some money to be made but probably not that much.  I guess if you're a success then you can recoup or make some money when you sell the club but none of this is screaming get rich quick. 

Maybe some of you can enlighten me because I genuinely don't understand why people want to own football clubs to make money.  If I had that much money then I think I would set myself up as a bank and lend clubs the money rather than owning them - that seems far more lucrative.  Anyway, I'm not knocking the new guys - they seem decent enough.

Somebody mentioned that Brentford have managed a £140m profit on player sales in recent years. With their emphasis on sticking with our current model of buying young talent, I imagine there are some gains to he made there from us as well. 

[Tamesaint]

11 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Yep, they probably did and that's fair enough but it's an exception to the rule.   At least as far as I know anyway.  I guess you can argue that we're under valued when considering other prem clubs so perhaps there is a decent return to be made but I'm not sure there's the same room to increase our value in the same way picking up a league one club with a premier league stadium and fanbase was.

Overall I agree with you. Most owners surely cannot make any money.  Simon Jordan wrote an entertaining, informative book on how he lost a fortune at Crystal Palace. Anyone who read that would be put off investing in football.

 Occasionally however , as the Leibhers demonstrate, there are bargains available. At the moment , Derby County scream out to me as a bargain - or at least they will be in the summer once their points deduction has their relegation confirmed. I would also think that Ipswich could be a profitable acquisition for the patient investor.

 

   

[Sheaf Saint]

1 minute ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

They allowed MK Dons

That was an exceptional case due to the relocation of the club. 

When Hull tried to change their name to Hull City Tigers a few years ago, they were blocked by the league. 

[VectisSaint]

I have some posts again, so

First, hope we can stop all these references to £100m being paid. Yes it was the amount quoted "initially" when the story broke, the vehicle for the story was the Sun, but not clear who gave the story to the Sun, but in the course of yesterday afternoon the article, which was quoted earlier in this thread, was updated to show the figure was £150m. I haven't seen or heard anyone actually quote the figure (Semmens for instance) and of course I have absolutely no idea how much was paid, but i am inclined to believe 150m is more likely than 100m. If you add the loan to this (which may or may not have been paid, or which is still with the club) then the amout Gao could get could be 200-220m, which would at least see him recouping his initial outlay. Sky would almost certainly have got their information from the Sun, or at least the same source (the link being Murdoch).

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/17216890/southampton-takeover-dragan-solak-jisheng/

We also should be focusing at least as much on Kraft (and Rasmussion) as on Dragan. We have been purchased by Sport Republic. Dragan is of course a chief investor in SR. It is most likely that it is Kraft we will see at games and who will have a hands-on role, I read that he will become the CE for the Football Club. I see this as bing more in the Cortese role. All the bollox being written about Broja and Dragan being at odds because Dragan is Serb is complete bollox, Broja may have a problem with Kraft (I've no idea why he would) but a lad brought up in Slough is not going to be concerned about a 41 year old guy who is putting money into Sport Republic any more than he would have a problem with the Russian oligarch at Chelsea (Albanians and Russians are not exactly best of chums). The troubles in the Balkans would have taken place when Dragan was a young boy/in his teens, he is more likely to have been a "victim" of the atrocities than someone who could be associated with them, he also seem rather anti-establishment in Serbia as far as i can see. I think he was interested in Southampton because of JWP's golf swing goal celebration 🙂

I'm quite well pleased with what I am seeing, I would have preferred it if Ms Liebherr had gone as well, but I guess nothing is perfect. Hopefully we can bring in a couple of youngsters in the Jan window, along the lines of Livramento/Small, though I am not sure I can get excited about Liam Rory Delap (sorry, I'm sure he is a great player).

No news on the rearranged Newcastle game yet, was reasonably sure the new date would be announced this week.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, Sheaf Saint said:

That was an exceptional case due to the relocation of the club. 

When Hull tried to change their name to Hull City Tigers a few years ago, they were blocked by the league. 

Ah! Trust the FA to make an exception!

[saintquin]

7 hours ago, AlexSerbia said:

Hi guys, a Serb here. So, the lead investor, Dragan Šolak, is a person who is an owner of TV channels and news outlets who are actually fighting for free speech in Serbia and against corrupted government that has ties with organised crime and mafia. So, basically, he's one of the good guys. He is portrayed by state controlled media as a number 1 public enemy, because he's media outlets are exposing a lot of corruption and crime. Don't use sources as Kurir, Blic, Informer, Alo, Serbian Telegraph, Pink, Prva, B92, RTS. These are all big outlets controlled by our government. Dragan's media outlets are N1, Nova and SportKlub. I wish you luck, you are in good hands.

 

4 hours ago, OldNick said:

there seems to be some stuff online that paints a very negative picture of this lot. Im not prepared to post it as I feel its probably wide of the mark. I would have thought the info that is on this, that shows they are in massive debt etc etc would have been flagged in due diligence and fairly open in the general business world for our people to have found. Somebody has gone to a lot of trouble writing it though as it is quite a long read.

Interesting reading these as I've also seen the below on Redcafe.

His net worth is a big mystery. He's been accused of money laundering and tax evasion. You can hear his name on (regime) TV dragged through the mud on a daily basis here - Accusing him of different frauds, anti-government activities, treason etc. 
He controls the "United group" and what is interesting, maybe 3 months ago, they lost their right to broadcast the Premier league in the future, as they couldn't compete with Telekom Serbia (they paid 600m € for 6 seasons).
It was a huge blow for his "United group".
Anyway, the point is our businessmen are shady AF. And I mean more shady than Abramovich & co.
I can bet my life he is there to leech and milk the club and I was very surprised a well-run club like Soton would allowed it. I remember few years ago when Miskovic (close to 3bn net worth) entered the biggest club in Serbia (Red Star Belgrade, basketball).
Club almost went bankrupt after his reign.

 

[Matthew Le God]

16 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

They allowed MK Dons

That is not comparable.

1) MK Dons does not have a brand name in the team name like Red Bull does.

2) It was 18 years ago MK Dons were formed! The FA rules on altering club names and badges have been tighten even more than 18 years ago.

Edited 5 January, 2022 by Matthew Le God

[pimpin4rizeal]

On 04/01/2022 at 18:27, egg said:

Cortese was good at spending the owners money, and spending more than he had authority too. Fortunately we now have more considered people with their hands on the wheel. 

I’m astonished really.. cortese persuaded Marcus to buy the club for a poxy 25 mil around and had risen the value to probably around 200m by the time he left Marcus had complete trust in the man. He found pochetino from nowhere, put amazing scouts in place like Paul allen took us up 2 divisions and improving all the time yet the guy gets treated like satan here for not even spending that much tbh.

 

[CB Fry]

17 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

I’m astonished really.. cortese persuaded Marcus to buy the club for a poxy 25 mil around and had risen the value to probably around 200m by the time he left Marcus had complete trust in the man. He found pochetino from nowhere, put amazing scouts in place like Paul allen took us up 2 divisions and improving all the time yet the guy gets treated like satan here for not even spending that much tbh.

 

He'll be taking over at AC Milan any day now. Any day.

[verlaine1979]

2 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

Surely Dragan's personal wealth is irrelevant, it is what FFP permits as external investment that matters.

Owners can put in 35m a season for three years without triggering ffp. If you're worth 1bn, you might balk at putting an additional 10% of your net worth on the line. If you're a sovereign wealth fund worth hundreds of billions, it probably means less.

[Charlie Wayman]

19 hours ago, Fan The Flames said:

A multi club approach along with other sporting assets, with SFC as the cornerstone. Does this suggest multi-sports at Southampton, this is popular on the continent, including Red Star Belgrade. Will we be hooking up with a rugby team or even an E Sports team?

Sounds more like gobble-de-gook, full of big-picture ambition but no strategy for getting there

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, VectisSaint said:

I have some posts again, so

First, hope we can stop all these references to £100m being paid. Yes it was the amount quoted "initially" when the story broke, the vehicle for the story was the Sun, but not clear who gave the story to the Sun, but in the course of yesterday afternoon the article, which was quoted earlier in this thread, was updated to show the figure was £150m. I haven't seen or heard anyone actually quote the figure (Semmens for instance) and of course I have absolutely no idea how much was paid, but i am inclined to believe 150m is more likely than 100m. If you add the loan to this (which may or may not have been paid, or which is still with the club) then the amout Gao could get could be 200-220m, which would at least see him recouping his initial outlay. Sky would almost certainly have got their information from the Sun, or at least the same source (the link being Murdoch).

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/17216890/southampton-takeover-dragan-solak-jisheng/

We also should be focusing at least as much on Kraft (and Rasmussion) as on Dragan. We have been purchased by Sport Republic. Dragan is of course a chief investor in SR. It is most likely that it is Kraft we will see at games and who will have a hands-on role, I read that he will become the CE for the Football Club. I see this as bing more in the Cortese role. All the bollox being written about Broja and Dragan being at odds because Dragan is Serb is complete bollox, Broja may have a problem with Kraft (I've no idea why he would) but a lad brought up in Slough is not going to be concerned about a 41 year old guy who is putting money into Sport Republic any more than he would have a problem with the Russian oligarch at Chelsea (Albanians and Russians are not exactly best of chums). The troubles in the Balkans would have taken place when Dragan was a young boy/in his teens, he is more likely to have been a "victim" of the atrocities than someone who could be associated with them, he also seem rather anti-establishment in Serbia as far as i can see. I think he was interested in Southampton because of JWP's golf swing goal celebration 🙂

I'm quite well pleased with what I am seeing, I would have preferred it if Ms Liebherr had gone as well, but I guess nothing is perfect. Hopefully we can bring in a couple of youngsters in the Jan window, along the lines of Livramento/Small, though I am not sure I can get excited about Liam Rory Delap (sorry, I'm sure he is a great player).

No news on the rearranged Newcastle game yet, was reasonably sure the new date would be announced this week.

I wonder if Katerina by retaining her small investment in SFC is an emotional nod to her late father's passion for the club? If so good on her.

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, Tamesaint said:

The Leibher family have certainly made a lot of money out of football clubs.

For a total outlay of c £30 million (initial purchase and subsequent investment) they had a return of £200 million plus and still kept 20% of their investment. I stand to be corrected but I think that they had previously made money on the purchase and subsequent sale of a club in Austria. 

 

 

 

Sure, but what if Marcus had shopped elsewhere? Where would we be then.

[EBS1980]

Will be interesting to see the value of players we go for. I like the idea of targeting young players, play them and develop them for a few years then hopefully sell on for big profits. But will we be looking at £5-£10M 18-21yr olds or £10-£20M ones.

more of a gamble on someone’s ability at cheaper end. Dortmund go to the other end and buy high value youngsters and sell for £50M+ Sancho, Haaland shortly etc 

[Toadhall Saint]

23 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Sounds more like gobble-de-gook, full of big-picture ambition but no strategy for getting there

How would you know what tactical actions are or are not being out in place to achieve the strategy? 

[SuperSAINT]

 

[Chez]

1 hour ago, VectisSaint said:

All the bollox being written about Broja and Dragan being at odds because Dragan is Serb is complete bollox, Broja may have a problem with Kraft (I've no idea why he would) but a lad brought up in Slough is not going to be concerned about a 41 year old guy who is putting money into Sport Republic any more than he would have a problem with the Russian oligarch at Chelsea (Albanians and Russians are not exactly best of chums). The troubles in the Balkans would have taken place when Dragan was a young boy/in his teens, he is more likely to have been a "victim" of the atrocities than someone who could be associated with them, he also seem rather anti-establishment in Serbia as far as i can see. 

the 41 year old Drago Solak plays chess, not invests in SFC.

[Dusic]

Given its been widely reported that Gao has been under financial pressure to sell Saints, and indeed has done so at a substantial loss, its interesting to also hear Semmens say that its easy to find investors but not easy to find good ones.

The Liebherr veto could well have stopped us from being sold to any old shyster (assuming SR are better of course) as without that surely Gao would have sold a while back to the first person to stump up the cash.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

11 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Given its been widely reported that Gao has been under financial pressure to sell Saints, and indeed has done so at a substantial loss, its interesting to also hear Semmens say that its easy to find investors but not easy to find good ones.

The Liebherr veto could well have stopped us from being sold to any old shyster (assuming SR are better of course) as without that surely Gao would have sold a while back to the first person to stump up the cash.

For all that she has made mistakes, Kat has really tried to do the best by us I think. We're quite lucky when you look at some of the terrible owners that other clubs have had

[angelman]

Just now, Ex Lion Tamer said:

For all that she has made mistakes, Kat has really tried to do the best by us I think. We're quite lucky when you look at some of the terrible owners that other clubs have had

Except for selling to Gao who was seemingly the highest bidder, and a totally unsuitable candidate (save for his +/- £200m)

[Ex Lion Tamer]

4 hours ago, saint1977 said:

I don’t know if anyone has posted this but a further thread from the UI poster who broke the initial story about this takeover being approved by the PL on why Gao bought the club in the first place https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/280692/given-gao-is-now-gone.../#15

Interesting comments on how the club has been run. We know the football side was rotten 2016-19 and only just emerging from that dreadful catalogue of mistakes with the scouting improving post Reed and Wilson. Semmens is impressive but it might be that this takeover gives him the clout to shake up some operational non football areas around the stadium/capital and ticketing functions for example to the standards he and the new owners would like, whereas the headroom might not have been there to do that before. 

This is interesting because surely Semmens has to take responsibility for poor decisions under him as CEO?

[AlexLaw76]

7 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

For all that she has made mistakes, Kat has really tried to do the best by us I think. We're quite lucky when you look at some of the terrible owners that other clubs have had

Err, have you been asleep for the last few years?

[Ex Lion Tamer]

4 minutes ago, angelman said:

Except for selling to Gao who was seemingly the highest bidder, and a totally unsuitable candidate (save for his +/- £200m)

I think she did it in good faith even if it turned out to be bad. And she inserted a clause to make sure he couldn't sell it on to anyone she didn't approve of

[angelman]

2 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

I think she did it in good faith even if it turned out to be bad. And she inserted a clause to make sure he couldn't sell it on to anyone she didn't approve of

I think I'm just more cynical and when £200m is on the table, good faith is easily overlooked. 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

4 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Err, have you been asleep for the last few years?

I'm not convinced Gao was that bad. He didn't invest and there was that terrible sponsorship deal ,but he got rid of the past lot, appointed a good management team and stayed out the way.

And ultimately we stayed up, which is more than can be said of Derby, for example.

He's definitely preferable to Lowe and Askham

[AlexLaw76]

4 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

I think she did it in good faith even if it turned out to be bad. And she inserted a clause to make sure he couldn't sell it on to anyone she didn't approve of

You don't go into two deals worth hundreds of millions in good faith!

She sold to the highest bidder, whilst maintain a good portion of the asset.

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Ex Lion Tamer said:

I'm not convinced Gao was that bad. He didn't invest and there was that terrible sponsorship deal ,but he got rid of the past lot, appointed a good management team and stayed out the way.

And ultimately we stayed up, which is more than can be said of Derby, for example.

He's definitely preferable to Lowe and Askham

The league literally had to re-define their already manky fit and proper persons test after he took over.

 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

17 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

You don't go into two deals worth hundreds of millions in good faith!

She sold to the highest bidder, whilst maintain a good portion of the asset.

The way I see it, she wanted to get out and there weren't any great options on the table, but saw Gao as at least a benign owner who would run us within our means. She also retained a stake to ensure she could continue to protect us, and inserted a clause to make sure the next owner was suitable

Edited 5 January, 2022 by Ex Lion Tamer

[egg]

2 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

I’m astonished really.. cortese persuaded Marcus to buy the club for a poxy 25 mil around and had risen the value to probably around 200m by the time he left Marcus had complete trust in the man. He found pochetino from nowhere, put amazing scouts in place like Paul allen took us up 2 divisions and improving all the time yet the guy gets treated like satan here for not even spending that much tbh.

 

I can see how you'd say that if you view it superficially, and don't know the reality. I was privy to details back then. The overspend on Staplewood was double digit millions. There was a lot of other stuff too. He oversaw our ascent and for that we can all we grateful, but sadly he was the author of his own downfall. 

[DuncanRG]

3 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

Sky would almost certainly have got their information from the Sun, or at least the same source (the link being Murdoch).

 

I'm not questioning your post in general, but it's worth saying that this isn't how the media works. They might have the same source but it'll be nothing to do with common ownership.

[pimpin4rizeal]

15 minutes ago, egg said:

I can see how you'd say that if you view it superficially, and don't know the reality. I was privy to details back then. The overspend on Staplewood was double digit millions. There was a lot of other stuff too. He oversaw our ascent and for that we can all we grateful, but sadly he was the author of his own downfall. 

I’d have really liked to see how it played out had he been left to it pretty sure poch would have stayed longer and it would have been interesting to see how nic would handled players like lallana Morgan etc wanting out..

I just think nc kind of saw the club as his after it was practically him that built it up and kat was more interested in taking it back with intention to sell ?

[S-Clarke]

3 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

I’d have really liked to see how it played out had he been left to it pretty sure poch would have stayed longer and it would have been interesting to see how nic would handled players like lallana Morgan etc wanting out..

I just think nc kind of saw the club as his after it was practically him that built it up and kat was more interested in taking it back with intention to sell ?

It wasn't his money though, that's the thing. He was spending someone else's and when he went crawling to KL for some more money, she said no...and that's when it all started to unravel a bit.

He was ambitious, was part of our progress up, but he was a total control freak and felt it was his fortune to spend. Staff at the club celebrated when he went, he created a horrific atmosphere behind the scenes.

Edited 5 January, 2022 by S-Clarke

[VectisSaint]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

the 41 year old Drago Solak plays chess, not invests in SFC.

You're right, of course, our man is 57. So maybe he is a Serbian warlord 😳 Someone needs to update Wiki with his details to avoid this confusion. 

[The Kraken]

1 minute ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

I just think nc kind of saw the club as his after it was practically him that built it up and kat was more interested in taking it back with intention to sell ?

That’s kind of the problem. He saw it entirely as his. And, as egg and plenty of others have either seen or heard first hand, the guy was extremely driven but also extremely flawed. He kept banging on about Saints living within their means whilst racking up huge debts. He was tolerable while there was a bunch of millions behind him to satisfy his thirst, and he oversaw some very good decisions by the club in terms of managers and progress. But it’s undeniable that the geezer was an absolute fucking lunatic.

He oversaw a couple of the best seasons I’ve ever supported Saints though, so fair play to him. 

[Vancouver Saint]

Wow. Emerged from Covid over New Year to found we'd been bought. Have spent the last hour scanning this thread and doing a background check. I am cautiously optimistic. Like others am pleased that Ankersan is there...seems like a real person with an interest in football and empathy with the fanbase. Kraft, I need to understand better. Semmens is a class act IMHO - have listened to him on TSP and he makes total sense - I sincerely hope he stays on, at least for a decent transition period - although I suspect the next announcement is he's leaving to run Newcastle.

Overall, a positive move. Something had to change with the Gao regime...we were doing well to stand still with no investment and raping the clubb of talent every year...top of the 'net in vs out' table each year was his goal and he managed to achieve that. On the plus side, he was hands off enough to let others works hard to make the club work and bring in people like Hasunhutl - without whom this deal would never have been possible.

The big picture multi-club model is also exciting. We have a short window to make Southampton the cornerstone of this - highest profile / most successful brand in the portfolio - and not a millstone.

[egg]

5 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

I’d have really liked to see how it played out had he been left to it pretty sure poch would have stayed longer and it would have been interesting to see how nic would handled players like lallana Morgan etc wanting out..

I just think nc kind of saw the club as his after it was practically him that built it up and kat was more interested in taking it back with intention to sell ?

I get that, and had he kept a lid on things it would have been very interesting to see where he could have taken us. There's no getting away from the fact that he oversaw one of the best periods of my time as a fan. Seeing us come back from the depths, flying through the leagues, signing players well above our status, and playing some great football was brilliant. It's a shame how it ended but we've survived, and these new guys seem like a step forwards from where we've been over recent years. 

[EBS1980]

2 hours ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Who the 2nd club In the group will be will be very interesting. You would expect some player linkup with maybe players going to this club to develop, “sold” onto Saints for us to develop more? Wonder if it’ll be used as a way to get round work permits for younger players to. 

[Dusic]

16 minutes ago, EBS1980 said:

Who the 2nd club In the group will be will be very interesting. You would expect some player linkup with maybe players going to this club to develop, “sold” onto Saints for us to develop more? Wonder if it’ll be used as a way to get round work permits for younger players to. 

Would imagine it would be used in a fairly similar way to how Brighton use Union Saint-Gilloise, who are now top of the Belgian league after being promoted last season. Their new Polish midfielder has signed and gone straight there on loan to join a Japanese player who did the same in the summer.

A club in a country like Belgium, Holland, Poland, Austria is probably ideal.

[pimpin4rizeal]

Must say I’m very impressed with rasmus seems an extremely switched on guy and also a brilliant speaker.. would be nice if he is quite hands on after listening to him..

why did he leave Brentford again.? 

[Saint Garrett]

1 minute ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Must say I’m very impressed with rasmus seems an extremely switched on guy and also a brilliant speaker.. would be nice if he is quite hands on after listening to him..

why did he leave Brentford again.? 

To setup sports republic…

[Jonnyboy]

3 hours ago, egg said:

I can see how you'd say that if you view it superficially, and don't know the reality. I was privy to details back then. The overspend on Staplewood was double digit millions. There was a lot of other stuff too. He oversaw our ascent and for that we can all we grateful, but sadly he was the author of his own downfall. 

We didn't go bust so what's the problem? 

[CB Fry]

4 hours ago, Jonnyboy said:

We didn't go bust so what's the problem? 

Precisely - Cortese departed and we didn't subsequently go bust so as you say absolutely no problem.

[AlexLaw76]

8 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

It wasn't his money though, that's the thing. He was spending someone else's and when he went crawling to KL for some more money, she said no...and that's when it all started to unravel a bit.

He was ambitious, was part of our progress up, but he was a total control freak and felt it was his fortune to spend. Staff at the club celebrated when he went, he created a horrific atmosphere behind the scenes.

Yet the current lot have added nearly £100m in debt and we are shite to boot.

[egg]

46 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Yet the current lot have added nearly £100m in debt and we are shite to boot.

That's completely different to someone spending somebody else's millions without their authority. 

[AlexLaw76]

1 hour ago, egg said:

That's completely different to someone spending somebody else's millions without their authority. 

very true. Just that they 'all' spend other people's money.  We were just less shit when he did it.

either way, matters little now.

[Saint86]

14 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Somebody mentioned that Brentford have managed a £140m profit on player sales in recent years. With their emphasis on sticking with our current model of buying young talent, I imagine there are some gains to he made there from us as well. 

Hi Sheaf, that was me.

It was based on this analysis here (below), but it only covered 2014-18. Obviously beyond the period covered they continued to sit at the top of the championship table before getting promoted and getting the new stadium. This is several years of success back to back. Very different to the Reed/Kruger era with the "Black Box" model of selling players Koeman signed and then spending the money on utter garbage (simplifying 😅). Consider that Brentford made a comparable profit (from the championship - to our sales on just VVD and Mane) whilst selling more of their best players than we did, and then managing to reinvest it year after year. Rasmus has a very good track record and its exciting to see if he can help improve us (although we've been doing that much better ourselves in recent windows).

Worth noting as well, then when Brentford arrived in the Championship in 2014 - they had the smallest playing budget. Is it too much to dream of that being scaled up to Southampton? 😆

I'll say one thing for Gao chairmanship - he got rid of Reed, Krueger etc. and got us running with Semmens, Ralph, Crocker etc.

Plus he's left us with what looks to be an exciting future.

 

Edited 6 January, 2022 by Saint86