23 Jul 2012 17:31:05
This morning Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf published an interview with Alexander Büttner about all the transfer woes that surrounds him.
In the article Büttner said the following about his almost done deal with The Saints: "We were so close, and i would have loved to join them but the clubs didn't come to an agreement. So now i am moving on, right now Hanover 96 and Fulham are showing real interest in me and there are two more clubs from France.
The Southampton story lies behind my now, my future is somewhere else." - chris
Good luck to Mr. Buttner. I believe the way Cortese has acted with Rangers demonstrates his high standards of behaving properly in the transfer market, and if he felt he could not complete this transfer then I respect his decision.
When it comes down to contracts and ethics, it takes a lot to beat the Swiss!
Saint Martin
Strange comments from Buttner as Saints and Vitesse had agreed a fee. It was all set to go ahead until Buttner himself introduced the 3rd party who wanted a cut of the transfer fee. At that stage Saints pulled out of the deal because thats not how Southampton FC do buisness.
teejaysaint
Very old news, this was done and dusted the second the 3rd party issue arose.
That's a shame, he seemed like he really wanted to join us over the likes of QPR and fulham..
Stricky
The third party was the father, he wanted a chunk of the money. Cortese pulled the plug, we move on.
saintintheknow
I think Buttner's approach to this outcome gives a good indication of why we pulled out of the deal.
We only sign committed players, and if he is happy to now go anywhere other than Saints to benefit his agent is a bad indicator
Think you will find Cortese is Italian, not Swiss!
Probably just as well hands up who remembers Ulrich Van Gobbel? He didn't want to fight for SFC and couldn't wait to leave after 1 season
A lot of dissapointed people. but has anyone actually seen him play? Can't say i'm too disappointed because until a month ago i had never even heard of him! Seem to remember a select number of fans getting excited when we signed gregory vignal....
I'm dissapointed for him, not for us. And I suspect that it is at least partly his fault.
Definitely agree it's his loss. Clear to see from YouTube that he is a diamond in the rough. Where better to find your form and become a better player than with Saints in the Prem
Huey
I'm not at all disappointed we where being taken for a ride by their club, the third party wanted an extra 3 million on top of the fee already agreed at £3.5 million so it woulda been stupid to go through with the deal
Spoon ;)
We know one thing for sure. Wherever he goes if it's not saints then it not his first choice.
Jannersaint.
Cortese is not Italian he is 100% swiss he came from italy when he came to saints as he was working there, by do you think the last 2 years up to now every pre season camp as been in swiss this year was in france but still looked over lake geneva (or how ever you spell that) a friend of my who used to walk the mascott round st marys now a coach, says he hates the song we sing about him because he is not Italian.
SFCR
Erm, no he is actually Italian . . . he just worked in Switzerland and was educated there! We go to Switzerland/Geneve because our owner Markus Liebherr was Swiss and we continue to go there, I imagine, in memory of the debt we owe that great man!
Nicola Cortese is an 'Italian' banker who was educated in Switzerland and England in business communication and finance.
Markus Liebherr was born in Kirchdorf an der Iller, Württemberg, Germany. He was a Swiss-based industrialist.