Saints are hoping to find out in the next few days whether the Premier League will allow Lander Holdings to take over at St Mary's.

The hold up on Lander Holdings taking over Southampton Football Club is now in the hands of the Premier League who are yet to give their verdict on whether Lander Holdings boss Gao Jisheng has passed the fit and proper persons test.

Both Jisheng and the club have given their cases to the Premier League panel and that verdict is expected within the next week.

If the ruling goes in favour of Gisheng then he is expected to complete the deal to buy 80% of the club from Katharina Liebherr, who will retain the other 20% and remain activily involved in the running of the club going forward.

But Saints Chairman Ralph Krueger has emphasised that should the deal not proceed then it will be business as usual at St Mary's.

Although the club would continue to look for further investment, should Jisheng be blocked from taking over the club it will continue with it's current strategy and it will not affect things to any great degree.

The reason investment is being sought is to enable the club to take the next step forward, although the current strategy can keep the club in the top ten of the Premier League ultimately if it wants to challenge the top six on a regular basis, it needs that investment going forward.

Photo: Action Images

arfurdent added 09:38 - May 23 main issue is whether Sir Les will pass the Fit & Proper T0sser Test
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LordDZLucan added 09:43 - May 23 It's good that this is going to be decided one way or the other in the next few days. Hopefully we'll get the investment and we'll then be able to hang on to Virgil van Dijk, Oriol Romeu etc. We would then be able to realize my dream of the perfect Saints side which would be a carbon copy of the Man Utd side of the 1990s i.e. half of the team made up of top drawer experienced professionals (van Dijk, Romeu, Bertrand + a couple of stellar signings) and the other half youngsters who've come through the academy (Stephens, Sims, Ward-Prowse etc.)!

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highfield49 added 09:53 - May 23 Whilst recognising that my opinion counts for absolutely nothing and will not make any difference to the outcome of negotiations I still feel uncomfortable with this investment. Gut instinct says to me we should be looking at other sources of financial backing and this deal could go horribly pear shaped. Only time will tell.
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saintsnutcase added 10:29 - May 23 None of the reports on this takeover give any indication of how much money is going into the club, if any. I trust Katherina Liebherr to take care of the club, but the majority of this cash injection will go to her, not to the club. I am also worried that the new Chinese owners do not have the wealth to make much difference to Saints, and it is not good that they are having trouble with the FA fit and proper test. I hope I am wrong because the only way we can go backwards is to fall into the wrong ownership.

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helpineedsomebody added 10:53 - May 23 why does a billionair owner need to sell the club
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Sanguin added 11:43 - May 23 I’ve never been one to accuse Katharina of trying to line her pockets with player sales. I think it’s clear to see that the money raised by player sales has been invested into a stronger and larger squad on longer term contracts and into better facilities. Nor do I begrudge her if she wants to sell the club for a huge profit given that it was the Liebherr’s original investment which saved the club and their continuing investment which has made us as successful as we are. But, I worry that this investment from Lander won’t see a great cash injection. I do not have a great deal of confidence in Lander’s financial situation and the fact that the owner is struggling to past the fit and proper persons test is very worrying. This investment will not be the ‘sugar daddy’ approach we’ve seen in the past at clubs like Man City, Chelsea, QPR, Leicester or Sheffield Wednesday. Hopefully, it will help to solidify our position and business model and reduce the need to sell players. I have faith in the club hierarchy, but having seen clubs driven into oblivion by new owners I’m still really worried.

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dirk_doone added 11:50 - May 23 Sounds like we're going to get the worst of both worlds with both Kat and the Chinese gangster taking money òut of our Club and Les Reed still in control of the football side. Hopefully the PL will stop them.
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pete_boggs added 13:56 - May 23 If we used half academy and half proper players in the first team we would be in league 1. Lord Lucan take some tablets please! Chinese are the only prospective buyers as we have very little income compared to many prem clubs and they have been duped into thinking we are making money from our academy products. Kat will sell to them but no investment in the team and 4 best players sold. Kat and Ralph will never be seen again and Les will run amok giving tea ladies 11 year contracts. No improvements are possible with Reed in place.

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IWOZTHERE added 14:07 - May 23 If, as rumoured, the new 'owners' are borrowing money for the acquisition, how will they then be able to inject all this cash into players and wages. Doesn't make sense. Only thing I'm sure about is that this must be resolved soon one way or the other. We're in limbo and if not sorted 'immediately', this summer's upheavals could be on a massive scale, beyond short term recovery.

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Jesus_02 added 15:50 - May 23 I wonder where we would be if we still had Cortese and Potch. My guess is either bankrupt or in the Champions League
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BoondockSaint added 18:46 - May 23 How the hell does she remain "actively involved in the running of the club.." if she only owns 20%?
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IanRC added 21:35 - May 23 I really hope this doesn't go ahead.
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SaintBrock added 14:10 - May 24 I agree with most that this interest from Asia gives me the jitters for all the reasons mentioned. At the moment we have a club with soul but this unsolicited interest from people on the other side of the world who have never heard of our City, suggests a soulless future business arrangement in which players and fans will be just commodities to exploit. As assets on their balance sheet fans can be exploited by raising ticket prices and so on. I have never understood how real Man City fans have stomached what's happened to their once local club.

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