CSA96 Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 (edited) Saints are back in the Premier League - how are you feeling? DS: I feel amazing. I'm so blessed to be part of the Southampton story. Obviously, I don't know that much football, but I'm trying to help with my experience, my knowledge and my energy. I found that with Russell Martin, with the players, with the board and even with all the fans, we can all share this kind of passion. I'm happy for me, but I'm so happy for all of them. It's amazing. This is a special club. Did you think that when you looked at the club at first? DS: Oh, yeah. Well, honestly, when I was offered the opportunity to take care of Saints, I did a lot of research, and everything I learned about Saints was so special. They are completely, I know, I'm a kid born in communist Yugoslavia who made his way into the world, and I love that they are fighting for what they want. They are fighting for their success. They are passionate, but also they are family club with beautiful supporters and I share their passion 100 per cent. Now you're in the Premier League, the thing is that you have to stay there? DS: Honestly, it's a 10-year plan, 10-year project, and we are just at the beginning. I'm glad that we had this sporting success. We'll try to capitalize on it, but we'll continue working on our long-term projects to make Saints a real, stable, forever Premier League club. For that, we need to do a lot with the enlargement of the stadium, with the enlargement of our commercial capacities, with many things we have to do. We are going to play with the biggest boys there are, and we are not afraid to play, but also I want to somehow provide the club the basis to be rightfully there. You know, you can always have a luck with one generation of great players. It can last for three or four years. You can make good money if you let them go somewhere else. But what we want to do is to create a real basis that Saints should rightfully think they're a Premier League club and actually aim for even more. Dragan, is it now so important to spend within your limitations? DS: I think that's super important because that gives some fairness to the whole game of sport and game of football. Obviously, we will look into our abilities. We'll try to spend to the maximum we can, but also we try to spend wisely. We'll try to continue developing young players, but also we also learned one thing. You cannot just have young players and focus on only player development. You need the leaders on the pitch. You need personalities who are able in games like this to find this 110 percent and to win the game. And you need a good owner. How do you describe yourself as an owner? Tonight, I'm a very happy owner, but most of the time, people, it's very funny, people ask me because we had some not so happy moments. Everybody asked me, what do you think now about your investment? And I always say, I really love it. And I can tell anybody, as long as you can afford it, it's a wonderful thing. But unfortunately, you have to be able to afford it. My day business is still going pretty well. So I'll try to help the Saints! But again, I think we have to stay within the smart environment of financial fair play and try to do most with the money that we put in. We don't just throw money in a basically careless way. Dragan, welcome back to the Premier League! DS: Thank you so much. It is so good. I told the guys from Championship, I really enjoyed the season. I think it's a great competition. I love the competition. I had so much fun. But obviously, I'm so happy we are back to Premier League. But I really love the Championship as well. I think it's a bunch of unbelievable clubs and it's always a great weekend. Edited May 28 by CSA96 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SW5 SAINT Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 There you go, even stadium enlargement on the agenda. That will excite several folk… 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatlesaint Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 (edited) the most telling and positive statement on players coming in is this bit - We'll try to spend to the maximum we can, but also we try to spend wisely. We'll try to continue developing young players, but also we also learned one thing. You cannot just have young players and focus on only player development. You need the leaders on the pitch. Edited May 28 by beatlesaint 32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewYorkSaint Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 We're lucky to have him. He's a great owner. Committed, willing to spend, but also not aggressively foisting his own opinions on how to manage Saints. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexLaw76 Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Stadium expansion - here we go 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Stadium enlargement you said? @Matthew Le God to the main board please! 3 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctoroncall Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 19 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said: Stadium expansion - here we go He does not say when although considering this is the beginning of a ten year plan expansion will be many years off and only if the club improves both on the pitch and commercially. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS1980 Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 I guess on the stadium expansion front it’ll help bring more money into the club both on a commercial front and more fans into each game. The extra funds will then help enable more to be spent on the team etc. i would imagine we will want to stay up this season but then will start to look into this, given all the time it’ll take and to get approval etc it makes sense for this to be earlier in the 10yr plan than later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintant Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 4 minutes ago, EBS1980 said: I guess on the stadium expansion front it’ll help bring more money into the club both on a commercial front and more fans into each game. The extra funds will then help enable more to be spent on the team etc. i would imagine we will want to stay up this season but then will start to look into this, given all the time it’ll take and to get approval etc it makes sense for this to be earlier in the 10yr plan than later I recall that St Marys was built with the option to add rows of seats but the cost was pretty high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Le God Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 From 21:30 https://talksport.com/radio/listen-again/1716886800/1716890400/ Enjoy 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Boy Saint Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 11 minutes ago, saintant said: I recall that St Marys was built with the option to add rows of seats but the cost was pretty high. Pretty certain that when it was being built, it was said the stadium design allowed Chapel, Kingsland, and Northam to have 5000 extra seats bolted on to them. I also seem to recall more recently that adding 5000 seats to SMS would cost more than the £32m it cost to build the whole stadium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
do i not like fizzy pop Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 (edited) 1 hour ago, John Boy Saint said: Pretty certain that when it was being built, it was said the stadium design allowed Chapel, Kingsland, and Northam to have 5000 extra seats bolted on to them. I also seem to recall more recently that adding 5000 seats to SMS would cost more than the £32m it cost to build the whole stadium. It wouldn't be cheap but I do know that the Barr's price of £32m to build SMS was a huge loss leader and that the second placed bidder was Mowlem at £51m. That skews the figures somewhat when making comparisons Edited May 28 by do i not like fizzy pop Can't spell Mowlem first time 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecuk268 Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 2 hours ago, EBS1980 said: I guess on the stadium expansion front it’ll help bring more money into the club both on a commercial front and more fans into each game. The extra funds will then help enable more to be spent on the team etc. i would imagine we will want to stay up this season but then will start to look into this, given all the time it’ll take and to get approval etc it makes sense for this to be earlier in the 10yr plan than later I'd imagine that he'd want 2 or 3 years of Premiership stability with near full-house crowds before considering expansion. It would be a large investment and he didn't get to be a billionaire by spending money without being confident of getting a return. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Wolf Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 How would they even do the stadium expansion? Take the sides off and then build up...Or...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey-deacons-left-nut Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 10 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said: How would they even do the stadium expansion? Take the sides off and then build up...Or...? Its a standard design, you take off the roof on one end and extend backwards and upwards. The stadium was designed with the ability to do that if and when it was needed. That said I'd like to see the bridge over the railway line finally sorted out properly and a better matchday experience in the area surrounding the ground, Saints really need to do everything to maximise their income to mix with the bigger boys, getting fans to spend money at the club and its facilities is one small way to help do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 19 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said: How would they even do the stadium expansion? Take the sides off and then build up...Or...? Apparently it was designed and built to allow for expansion, I always understood it to be a second tier added to one of the main stands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenilworthy Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 2 minutes ago, Toussaint said: Apparently it was designed and built to allow for expansion, I always understood it to be a second tier added to one of the main stands. I asked Andrew Cowan about this when the ground was being planned. Three sides have the foundations to allow for an expanded capacity. But not the Itchen. The capacity was determined at its current size not by what Saints wanted but what the council would allow in terms of the impact on traffic, with the provision that if the traffic was found not to be a problem we could expand. Saints could have built a higher roof from the start to allow seats to be added later - like MK Dons did. But it was felt that the stadium would start out looking odd, and if we never expanded would be a constant source of meockery. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordic Saint Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 (edited) 50 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said: How would they even do the stadium expansion? Take the sides off and then build up...Or...? It will be similar to the development at Cardiff City Stadium. An upper tier will be added to the Kingsland, which will take the capacity up to 38,000. The population of the city and the fanbase is continuing to grow so that will be necessary. It will also help to establish us as a medium-sized club, capable of competing regularly for European places and possibly even a cup or two, which must be the owners' aim. Edited May 28 by Nordic Saint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skintsaint Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Will most likely be similar to Leicester's expansion on the King Power... https://www.lcfc.com/stadiumconsultation?lang=en 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Wolf Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 42 minutes ago, Toussaint said: Apparently it was designed and built to allow for expansion, I always understood it to be a second tier added to one of the main stands. Like Newcastle's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bakovnetski Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 I seem to remember 40000 being the potential expansion already provided for but that goes back some way in my memory, high tolerance level. Some sage on here will have the full stadium plan drawings to share no doubt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfc4prem Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Reckon we'd sell out fairly regularly, though would likely struggle to for the games at home to teams like Fulham and Brentford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malcolm waldron Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 4 hours ago, Saint_clark said: Stadium enlargement you said? @Matthew Le God to the main board please! We're going to need that to house the 18,500 Leeds fans that bought SFC season tickets / became members last week. Incidentally - my amazing day out on Sunday was partially ruined by the fact that around me in Block 127 were about 2,500 Leeds fans. Fair play to them though - they'd all bought Saints shirts (even some faded retro ones), had Hampshire accents, joined in with the songs and ALL went absolutely mental when AA scored - and at the final whistle blew. That can't have been easy..... 1 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyinthesky Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Cost of expansion would be high but if the club could work out a deal to gain commercial revenue from the adjacent warehouse area and the Itchen waterfront currently occupied by aggregate wharves etc there could be benefit for the whole city Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS1980 Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Maybe we should take the Man Utd approach and expect the government to pay for it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 1 hour ago, skintsaint said: Will most likely be similar to Leicester's expansion on the King Power... https://www.lcfc.com/stadiumconsultation?lang=en I hope ours is an improvement on that architecturally speaking. That's hideous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 1 hour ago, spyinthesky said: Cost of expansion would be high but if the club could work out a deal to gain commercial revenue from the adjacent warehouse area and the Itchen waterfront currently occupied by aggregate wharves etc there could be benefit for the whole city I suspect we'll sell naming rights to help fund the project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 14 minutes ago, Disco Stu said: I suspect we'll sell naming rights to help fund the project. Friends Provident St Mary's Expansion has a nice ring to it. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cat Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Are they suddenly not the worst owners of all time or whatever people were saying? 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry_SFC Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 7 minutes ago, The Cat said: Are they suddenly not the worst owners of all time or whatever people were saying? They never have been the worst owners. Rasmus took on too much responsibility and made some poor decisions last season but he realised that and took a step back. They've clearly got the clubs best interests at heart, that's the main thing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toussaint Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 1 hour ago, Bad Wolf said: Like Newcastle's? My feeling would be more like Sunderland’s, as this is essentially a two storey version of the same stadium. From recollection, Saints, Sunderland, Derby county and Leicester all used Barr Construction and their “flat pack” model. Some in Scotland also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cat Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 (edited) 22 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said: They never have been the worst owners. Rasmus took on too much responsibility and made some poor decisions last season but he realised that and took a step back. They've clearly got the clubs best interests at heart, that's the main thing. Plenty of recent comments on the Sports Republic thread stating things like "fucking terrible owners", "worst owners in a generation", "I wonder what Dragan's next inevitable fuck up will be, probably extend Martin's contract", "woeful owners", "fucking pathetic owners" etc etc. People making themselves look like bellends when they literally have no clue about running a club. Edited May 28 by The Cat 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 31 minutes ago, The Cat said: Are they suddenly not the worst owners of all time or whatever people were saying? You know Batman always gets excitable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Just now, The Cat said: Plenty of recent comments on the Sports Republic thread stating things like "fucking terrible owners", "worst owners in a generation", "I wonder what Dragan's next inevitable fuck up will be, probably extend Martin's contract", "woeful owners", "fucking pathetic owners" etc etc. People making themselves look like bellends when they literally have no clue about running a club. Come on you are not new! You see many volte faces on every match thread. This place is littered with knobheads who think we are permanently doomed and going to drop through the divisions. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB Fry Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 2 minutes ago, The Cat said: Plenty of recent comments on the Sports Republic thread stating things like "fucking terrible owners", "worst owners in a generation", "I wonder what Dragan's next inevitable fuck up will be, probably extend Martin's contract", "woeful owners", "fucking pathetic owners" etc etc. People making themselves look like bellends when they literally have no clue about running a club. You know we got relegated in an absolute car crash of a season, don't you? Or did you spend that entire season saying that those guys are the best club owners any fan could ever wish for? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 9 minutes ago, CB Fry said: You know we got relegated in an absolute car crash of a season, don't you? Or did you spend that entire season saying that those guys are the best club owners any fan could ever wish for? They tried though. Shit decisions is one thing but well intentioned and clearly not asset strippers 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cat Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 8 minutes ago, CB Fry said: You know we got relegated in an absolute car crash of a season, don't you? Or did you spend that entire season saying that those guys are the best club owners any fan could ever wish for? Of course I didn't. What I also didn't do was come out with stupid statements a month before the end of a season when we were in a good position to go back up. There can be a middle ground, not everything needs to be so polarised. Loads of owners make mistakes, their teams go down and come back up. SR were new owners. They admit they got it wrong last season and have now rectified it at the first attempt. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 7 hours ago, SW5 SAINT said: There you go, even stadium enlargement on the agenda. That will excite several folk… If it ever happens will likely be along the same lines as Leicester City (our Barr sister stadium) - tier above a side stand to take capacity to 40k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB Fry Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 7 minutes ago, The Cat said: Of course I didn't. What I also didn't do was come out with stupid statements a month before the end of a season when we were in a good position to go back up. There can be a middle ground, not everything needs to be so polarised. Loads of owners make mistakes, their teams go down and come back up. SR were new owners. They admit they got it wrong last season and have now rectified it at the first attempt. They have just about got us to where we were in the first place before they bought us. They've rectified their own fuck up, I'll give you that. Let's see what they do next before we commission the marble statues. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cat Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Just now, CB Fry said: They have just about got us to where we were in the first place before they bought us. They've rectified their own fuck up, I'll give you that. Let's see what they do next before we commission the marble statues. Is anyone asking for statues? Give them credit for this season while acknowledging they made a mess of it last season. That's all we need to do at the moment. Dragan's interview is encouraging. It's nice to hear more from the owner, especially as he's largely in the background and doesn't say much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 28 minutes ago, CB Fry said: They have just about got us to where we were in the first place before they bought us. This is my feeling at the moment. The slate is wiped clean as far as I'm concerned and I will be judging them on next season, especially on how we recruit this summer. At the moment, words are just words. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian lord Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 We playing stadium expansion bingo again? Excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfc4prem Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarvSFC Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 What a difference it makes to not have someone from the top saying we're lucky to be in the Premier League and that the women's team will eventually outgrow the men's team. Good that they've learned the team needs a mix of youth and experience, think that proved last season, especially the loan signings. All fans knew it when they were raiding the City youth team last time we were up here, but it's good that they've identified that mistake. Don't think Lallana's the answer, but we've got a whole summer to see who else we bring in. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
31cc Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 (edited) I Edited May 28 by 31cc The monkey chicken petting zoo! At last! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 19 minutes ago, 31cc said: I Hang on! I put my savings into investing in a place where I could pet chickens and monkeys. A dream so many of us share. Are you telling me it's a place to watch monkeys petting chickens?! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
31cc Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 Always read the small print. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SotonianWill Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 13 hours ago, The Cat said: Plenty of recent comments on the Sports Republic thread stating things like "fucking terrible owners", "worst owners in a generation", "I wonder what Dragan's next inevitable fuck up will be, probably extend Martin's contract", "woeful owners", "fucking pathetic owners" etc etc. People making themselves look like bellends when they literally have no clue about running a club. I believe there was a strong distinction between criticism for the owner, Solak, of which there was none, and Sport Republic, of which there was genuine questions asked. From the top of my head most of these posts were in the form of feeling bad for Solak having spent a lot with these lot in charge. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patches O Houlihan Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 9 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said: Hang on! I put my savings into investing in a place where I could pet chickens and monkeys. A dream so many of us share. Are you telling me it's a place to watch monkeys petting chickens?! Wait are you telling me that the exhibits won't be genetically modified chicken/monkey hybrids?! I'd set my heart on that 😠 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted May 29 Share Posted May 29 1 hour ago, Patches O Houlihan said: Wait are you telling me that the exhibits won't be genetically modified chicken/monkey hybrids?! I'd set my heart on that 😠 That was my understanding. Monkeys with beaks or chickens with tails who eat bananas. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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