Southampton Rumours Archive January 16 2014

16 Jan 2014 17:13:39
Well thank god the manager is staying, I was fearing a mass exodus from the staff and squad, but with Poch still at the helm I'm sure we'll be fine and let's just hope we get a good new chairman, also heard a rumour that potentially we have one of the richest men in China interested in buying the club and Cortese wanted Kathirina to sell the club as she apparantly has no interest in football and apparantly he could be in with this Chinease guy, so the future maybe even brighter than we thought with richer owner however this is all speculation and rumours I have heard, does anyone else know anything about new owners?

This could well be true and the reason Cortese made a special trip urging pottchetino t say on as manager

I'm hearing a lot of rumours that Cortese handed in his resignation last August but he was just fulfilling the rest of his contract which expired this month. I can't see any reason why he would resign other than not getting on with the owner in some shape or form, the club was practically his baby.

The "richest man in china" rumour is due to a company called Dalian Wanda. They are already familiar with Saints as they are the parent company of Sunseekers, one of our sponsors.

Let's hope we don't become the Southampton Dragons! :-)

And if Lambert goes to West Ham we will sign Gao Lin! :-)

To the contrary, let's hope we do!

The guy is worth 13 billion dollars, quite a bit more than chelski!

Cortese won't let any of the staff follow him out of southampton he isn'tlike that

I think the rumour of the mega rich guy with cortese running the show would be the ideal scenario here.
I'm still unsure about the whole poch situation. He said he hasn't had time to analyse the situation. I will be glad when the window shuts as selling somebody behind his back could change things a lot.
I personally think if the Wanda group rumour is real, it would be without cortese. But I wouldn't rule out a possibility of a consortium led by him.

All of these rumours are being thrown around, I'd love them to be true, especially as it doesn't make sense for Nicola to not complete all these plans he has made for the club, doesn't seem like the man to have unfinished business, but however much I hope he finds new investors and returns these rumours just may be last hopes from fans who want him back rather than actually know anything

I'm only being realistic here but if I was the richest man in China and I wanted to buy a football club I'd buy Man Utd. And Cortese along with everyone one else who's realist and not a Liverpool supporter would agree. Southampton, good eMP team or the best known football brand on the planet bar none. Forget the asking price even the Glazzer have proved that with United the value only goes up

Abromavich is worth 13. 8 billion don't know where you get your theories from haha

Hopefully if the Chinese takeover rumour is true, a new Chinese owner doesn't interfere too much with the playing side of things, if they don't know anything about football itself. Imagine the confusing tactics in today's strategy of this "False Number Nine" player position. (Punchline alert!) We might accidentally get a vegetarian chicken chow mein playing upfront.

Goodnight! ;)

Saint Etienne (yeah, read it twice if you have to. )

Keep tabs on him joining AC Milan because if he does, I can see him trying to broker a deal for this club!

Surely, if he joins AC Milan he won't be up for trying to broker this club as he will be employed elsewhere!

Rumours are that the guy who brokered the Liverpool sale may be brought in. Has Cortese left to put together a bid to buy the club? Did he tell Poch to stay put 'cos he'd be back? I hope so.

I wouldn't care if we was called the Southampton chicken balls, aslong as we keep progressing

I'd rather be back in League 1 than be called Southampton Chicken balls.

Sweet and sour Saints

Hot and spicy Saints

16 Jan 2014 08:58:47
I know nobody ever believes the rumours that start with 'a source from within the club'. So all I'll say is that I have it on good authority from an old friend that the players are of the understanding that MoPo will be staying indefinitely at the helm, and will indicate this in his press conference today. The same can be said of Shaw.

As for the reason behind NC's departure, potential future owners, and the rumoured Lambert sale, I've got no info unfortunately!

I hope to Aussie, I hope so.

From 3pm on ssnNews (ssn) Pochettino will be mentioning this whole issue in his press conference.

It really could go either way.

Meanwhile, I'm listing his possible successor as manager:
Immediately:
Hoddle
Adkins (especially as Reading FC are in talks with potential new buyers themselves)

From end of season (as he may wanna prove his brilliance and have a good top 10 league finish and good Cup run on his CV, before leaving!)

Laudrup
Klinsmann
Adkins (will lead Reading to promotion then step back in and finish off the brilliant job he started!)

They'd all work great with our kids, the whole academy system and keep us playing grrrreat football.
Although, if Cortese's gone perhaps so to has "the project"

We'll see. Time will tell.

Heads up Saints fans and players and staff. Good luck.

Am I the only one that thinks that NC leaving may be connected to him being involved in actually buying the club? I'm thinking that as lawyers were involved, there must be sensitive situation there, and this could point toward a 'conflict of interests' hence he leaves before potentially returning under new ownership?

I'd like to think courtese could hook up with the new owners if she wanted to sell
I've heard the Chinese sunseeker connection but you never know with saints
January to a saints fan is always bad news

MP and the players will stay loyal, we are not in 'meltdown' 'crisis torn' or otherwise.
As stated before, NC contract was only interim following his last meeting with Katharina, he was unhappy that it had not been settled. Coupled with what he saw as interference, from her. So I've heard a couple of reasonable explanations
1. He was told to accept the big money for Shaw, and fought it.
2. He is actually head of the consortium, that was rumoured to be buying us back in the summer. He will return as an owner, not just an "Employee" a title he apparently did not like.

Whatever happens the club will be here, we will have a great stadium to go and watch the team we love, no matter what COYR!

Get Adkins back?! Really? As shown with Reading this season, he's an average manager who makes silly decisions on buying players.

The fact that MoPo is still here is a good sign, he's stated before that if NC went he would to and with NC telling him to stay in charge it shows he has some kind of plan to come back

As has been said above, I am of the opinion that Cortese may be working with potential buyers. Katharina is rumoured to want out and did not like the fact that he had so much responsibility/influence over what is essentially her investment now.

Can we really see Cortese starting a new project elsewhere? Our club has an infrastructure that supports what he was trying to do. This was partially in place befoe his arrival which made the club desireable to Liebherr in the first place and there won't be many clubs out there for sale in a similar position. I can't imagine a man like Cortese could walk away from something like this unfinished. He will want more freedom to implement his plan which could happen under new owners. All purely speculation of course and let's not forget what the Liebherr family have done for our club.

For now, people need to remain calm. The reporting of the Cortese situation has just led to speculation on everything from a fire sale of players, to sale of club and manager walking out.

Seriously, the news coverage has been sensationalistic journalism at it's worst.

So what do we know? Cortese stated previously that should the Liebher family not share the vision held by Marcus and Nicola, he had alternative investors prepared to step in - In my opinion this may no longer be the case, since I would imagine that this would be handled quietly in-house.
Pochettino previously stated that he did not envisage staying at Saints should Cortese leave - This leads us to believe that he will be leaving, however he is on the training field this morning.

Pochettino may still walk. Cortese may be back. Players might leave - although it would be very rare for a player to leave following a Chief Exec.

There is a Presser today at 3. 00, which I believe should be available live youtube. Perhaps we all ought to watch it, and reserve judgement until then.

Just to calm down a bit - here are some snippets from the latest sports news on the BBC.

"Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino is expected to hold talks with owner and new chairman Katharina Liebherr before his weekly press conference at 3pm today.
"Miss Liebherr is keen to provide assurances to the manager and attempt to restore calm at St Mary's. "

and

"Mauricio Pochettino has no plans to plunge Southampton into further turmoil by following former chairman Nicola Cortese out of the club in the short term. His long-term future remains in doubt, however.
"The players have expressed their surprise and disappointment at Cortese's departure but while Pochettino remains they do not plan to spark an exodus from the club. "

I do realise, especially amongst football supporters, to think the worst and be all doom and gloom but let's see what happens - sometimes it is for the best, not always I know, given Saints long history it's usually s**t but you never now, you never know.

The trouble is it's always the fans who get the sticky end - everyone else will come out of this okay, no matter what.

I'm sorry, Nigel did wonderful, wonderful things with our club but getting him back would be a backwards step. Love it or hate it, it's the brutal truth.

Totally agree with Adkins post above getting N. A back would be a backwards step he did a great job but think some fans have just got to let the whole Adkins scenario go!