Once again rumours that a takeover of Saints is imminent are rife.
In truth the rumours are nothing new, its the same consortium headed by Southampton Barrister Jonathan Fulthorpe, and once again sources close to the club & consortium are saying the deal is on the verge of happening.
The stumbling block seems to be getting the funds into place, with the very nature of a consortium t means that nothing is easy, the cash is alledgedly coming from several different sources in several different countries and that being the case, there are various different rules and regulations regarding the deal that need to be overcome, it seems that after months of wrangling, everything could be about to come together.
Of course we have heard this all before, deadline after deadline has passed meaning that Rupert Lowe has had to set up a plan on the assumption that the whole thing isnt going to happen, of course now isnt the ideal time for the club to be taken over, especially on the eve of the season as it leaves no real room for manoevre.
If it was to happen in the next few weeks for instance, the new men are rumoured to be bringing in their own manager, alledgedly Alan Shearer, but if the transfer window has passed what can Shearer do for four months or so, I would contend that it would be foolish to change the manager at that point, that we might be better preceeding on with Poortvliet, albeit with the fact that he could bring in some quality loan signings.
What might delay the process however is the fact that Lowe himself is now away for a short time as witnessed by the fact that he was unable to attend the BBC Radio Solent Forum, its understood that Lowe himself wont be a stumbling block to this deal, but obviously as Chairman and controlling a large chunk of the shares, he does need to be heavily involved.
So there could be some nes on the takeover front in the next couple of days, however this is Southampton Football Club and nothing is ever simple, so it could drag on for a little longer yet.