Rumours around the club are suggesting that Andrew davies is about to be sold to Stoke. 

Rupert Lowe should think very carefully about selling Andrew Davies, if he does leave then it will create a backlash from the fans that could prove financially disastrous to the Club.

Of course Saints fans understand the financial pressures the club is under at the moment, and even the biggest critic of Lowe can understand why he is needing to get the high wage earners off the books, especially when to be blunt most of these overpaid players were also our biggest underperformers, however the case of Andrew davies is different.

The fans voted Davies player of the year last term, despite the fact that he only played 24 games plus one as sub, the supporters have been willing to give the Poortvliet revolution a chance due to the fact that they have assumed that if the likes of Rasiak, Skacel, Euell et al can be moved on that we will then have a little scope to bring in some new blood and boost that with the return of Davies, if Davies were to be sold I dread to think what that would do to the morale of the fans.

Last years sale of Kenwynne Jones could be justified by the exhorbitant fee we got for him, however its rumoured that Davies will only fetch £1.5 million, thats only £500k more than we paid for him and it could be some of that would go to Middlesbrough in a sell on clause, the truth is that this transfer gives Saints very little gain, but massive repercussions.

The financial gain made by getting his wages off the books will be wiped out by the fans who say enough is enough and stop going to the games, the attendance at the Birmingham game must be worrying to the club, it didnt top 19,000 and that included two thousand Brummies, the visit of Blackpool already has the making of the lowest league attendance at St Mary's, I dread to think what would happen to the gate if Davies is sold.

But the worst situation from selling Davies, wont be financial it will be morale, Saints fans have had to put up with a lot over the past four seasons, so much that its amazing that we still have so large an average attendance and that St Mary's still has one of the loudest singing sections in the league, that could all go pop if Davies leaves.

But perhaps the most sinister aspect of this deal is that the mooted takeover is supposedly at a very advanced stage, Lowe will know this and whilst he must of course run the club on the basis of the situation now and not a hypothetical one, surely to sell Davies would be folly and some would see this  as the final act of revenge by a man who came back to the club to settle a few old scores.

Now Im not saying that this is my view or i agree with it, but Lowe's popularity with the fanbase is such that there are more than a small minority who would claim this, and a sizeable chunk of those, who so far have been willing to give Lowe the benefit of the doubt, who would turn on him now with a loathing that he has yet to see.

Rupert Lowe has done a good job in balancing the books so far and is working in a difficult enviroment, but if he is to succeed, he has to realise that itisnt just about money, its about the supporters as well, as without them the club is nothing.         

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