Matty reflects on the SISU situation.
SAINTS’ future was put firmly at risk come 4pm on Saturday, as Ray Ranson’s SISU Capital consortium completed its takeover of Coventry City.
The London-based hedge fund had shown interest in taking control at St Mary’s since the end of October, but none of the club’s major shareholders were able to fix a date with Ranson and co for discussions.
SISU have made it clear to the Sky Blues’ supporters that the club’s £38million debt will be restructured to ensure that all financial and operational commitments are met – and £20million has been promised to support development of the club.
One cannot help but think of the words ‘missed’ and ‘opportunity’ at this precise moment.
Here we have our beloved club suffering unsustainable losses of £1million a month, yet shareholders and fans alike were bursting at the seams to denounce SISU as nasty, conniving City vultures.
It would be very misguided and foolish of me to take any viewpoint as to how this will all turn out in the end right now, but the end outcome will be very, very interesting to all concerned at Southampton FC.
Ranson, the former Manchester City defender, has promised that the £20 million investment will help the Championship club to build a stable platform and start planning for a return to the Premier League.
No-one is saying this plan will all fall into place smoothly, but Coventry are now looking considerably more stable in the boardroom now Ranson has taken the role of chairman over from Joe Elliot.
Meanwhile, down at an overcast St Mary’s, the boardroom continues to be a vacuous void and manager George Burley frets about a January of selling off any assets he can find left in his first team squad.
Ranson said of the takeover: "It has been very hard work, but we managed to get there at the death. It was very complex. The . . . £20million . . . is going to be invested right across the board to build a stable platform for the club to grow. Premier League promotion [is the aim], to get up there and stay up there. That is easier said than done."
Oh how refreshing it would be to hear the board of Southampton FC talk about an aim of returning to the Premiership – hang on, there isn’t actually a fully functioning board in place to talk about it!
Perhaps some people may well look back at their thoughts and comments on SISU and wonder if they had been too dismissive of the consortium before giving them a chance.
On the other hand, many will say that pushing Ranson and his crew as far away from Southampton FC as possible is the best thing to happen since talk of a takeover was first announced way back in late April.
Whatever any fan or staff member is thinking, Burley made a very pertinent point in his post-match press conference on Saturday when he said: "We’re in the same position as them [Coventry] and, hopefully, our cash situation will also improve shortly."
Whether you were on the side of SISU or firmly against, Burley has tidied things up quite nicely: We WERE in the same position. Coventry have gambled and we haven’t, so only time will tell who made the right choice.