In an interview with the Financial Times Dragan Solak has reiterated that he won't be bringing mega money into the club for transfers and that the club will be run on the same structure as before.
Sometimes it is not what you say, but the way that you say it, when Markus Liebherr took ownership of the club in July 2009 he outlines a strategy of how the club would be run going forward and how his intention was to establish Saints as a well run club who would run as a business in it's own right.
That was pretty much the case for a year or so till after his sad death in August 2010, although the picture was blurred as with the then current CEO taking complete control, there was a period where claims about top four finishes and Champions League football gave some the impression we would take on the World.
A look back over the last 7 seasons since Katharina Liebherr had to take steps to remove the said CEO who had developed the football side of things whilst neglecting the business side, meaning that the club had overspent whilst bringing in little commercial revenue, shows that aside from the so called Big Six, only Leicester City, ourselves and last season West Ham have managed to achieve a top six finish.
Football has changed drastically over the past decade or so.
When Gao took over in 2017 there was initially a lot of optimism, he intended to invest money but almost immediately found that due to increasing tensions between China and the West he was unable to do so because of the political situation.
In an interview back in 2019 he spoke to the Shanghai Times and said:
"I am not treating Southampton as a pig to be fattened and sold”
He then went on to say:
"I am treating it as a child. But my children must believe they cannot depend on the boss. I have said to Southampton: ‘I am now your father. But I am putting you on the right track: you need to feed yourself.’”
But the damage was done in that first sentence, despite the fact that he was clearly stating that he was treating the club as he would a member of his own family and that he would not sell us down the river so to speak.
That proved to be the case and when Gao left a few weeks ago, he had left us in pretty much the same position that he had found us, but the club was now leaner and more able to take on the challenges facing it including Covid, he had not taken any money out, he had not sold us to the first bidder and he had lost money, a lot of money that he could if he had wanted to have got out of the club to a degree.
So now we have a new de facto owner in Dragan Solak, the head investor in Sport Republic the company that now own 80% of the club.
He has spoken to the Financial Times and again outlined that Sport Republic do not intend to pump millions in for big name transfers.
"I’m not the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi or the prince of Saudi Arabia. I cannot bring 500m to buy new players.”
This has been made clear from the start with Saints CEO Martin Semmens commenting
:
"We have a strategic plan — it’s sitting on my desk in front of me and that's what Sport Republic have bought into and we will continue on that path.
"So the transfer window, we will always do our way and you're very aware of that. But are we in a better position today than we were yesterday? Absolutely.
"It allows us to focus in on the things we're doing already potentially doing a bit quicker.”
So in the last 13 years we have had 3 owners, 4 if you count Katharina Liebherr as an owner in her own right and her involvement in the club has been just as crucial as her Father's in the way she had to step up to the plate and regain control of the club in 2014 at a time that if she had walked away could have been catastrophic.
All of the owners have said exactly the same thing, but they have said it in different ways, they know that football has changed as Solak has said he is not a Saudi Arabian prince, few clubs can compete with the money that Manchester City and now Newcastle have, money talks and as Everton have found out having spent £600 million in transfer fees over the past 6 years, it doesn't guarantee you anything, in fact it is still not enough to make you truly competitive.
I try and read past the headline quotes, I did so with Gao, his only crime was that he was unable to pour large amounts of money into the club in the eyes of the fans, but as I said he has done us no harm.
Now under Sport Republic we will move forward, but the competition will get harder, there are now 7 clubs in town with the addition of Newcastle, the rest of us will struggle to get into the top 10.
For the moment the way forward is to build the foundations and slowly improve every season, but we should set our goals realistically, in season 2020/21 Everton spent just shy of £100 million, they received nothing from outgoing transfers, we spent around £35 million, but with outgoings of £26 million we had a net spend of £9 million.
So for their extra outlay of £91 million what did Everton achieve that was better than us, well in finishing 10th and 5 places above us in 15th, they would have received around £12 million extra in prize money, we got to an FA Cup semi final so we got a lot nearer to glory than they did.
So what is good business in football these days ?
For the fans that is easy, spend out big money in transfers, it shows you want to compete, but what do you compete for ? The truth is at best 7th and even that will push out to 8th next season if Newcastle stay up.
For the clubs themselves outside of that big 7 it is about survival, if we had spent £100 million on transfers last season and finished 10th it would have bankrupted us, in fact if we had finished 4th it would have still bankrupted us, it has left Everton struggling themselves as we see this season.
A look at this seasons table shows that only West Ham are competing with that big 6 , Manchester united are in disarray, but they are still in 4th.
So I welcome the words of Dragan Solak, I have high hopes for Sport Republic as our owner, they are realistic in what they can achieve, they don't have a "Build it and they will come" attitude, they know what can be done and what is pie in the sky.
We are not alone, West Ham have built their squad carefully over the past couple of years, they have shipped out the deadwood and bought well, they have the ability to spend more than us because they have a stadium twice as big and can milk the tourist trade in London, why do you think they subtly changed their badge to include London in the text.
But take out what will be a big 7 next season and the rest of us are pretty much in the same boat, yes Aston Villa and Everton will spend more, but it will guarantee them nothing and they will almost certainly not get any higher than 8th perhaps 7th at a push.
I say it a lot but there needs to be a radical overhaul of the Premier League, it needs the big clubs to join a European Super league, they have outgrown us, as rewarding as our draw was against Manchester City, it also highlighted the future and to be blunt the last decade or so, very few clubs outside of that big 6 have actually won anything be it the Premier League, The FA or League cups.
Is the future of football truly going to a game to celebrate a draw against the Champions as if we had won the League itself ?
Hopefully it isn't and if football is to survive then it has to change and when it does,, then Saints could truly compete in a revamped Premier league.