He was shite, now we have this.
Interesting piece from Adam Blackmore
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''YELLOWāsā¦ YELLOWsā¦ āā
(We still alowed to sing that ? (if we had a yellow kit obviously))
I dont care who owns the clubā¦ as long as we score some goals now and then
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Itāll be ok as long as theyāre not muslim and refuse to integrate
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Here we go here we goā¦the mighty Saints on a roleā¦ 
Onwards and upwards. 
OWTSGMI 
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Wrong Steve, very wrong, but an upvote just the same.
What, exactly?
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Whatās with all the "pleased to confirmā¦a new partner"āhumbled to become a partner of Southampton Football Clubā bollocks?
The club is issuing statements as if it were an entity separate from the bloke who now owns 80% of it.
Gao making the statement and thanking Kat would be more usual with Kat issuing a statement separate from the company as a minor shareholder.
Heās surely the now the owner, majority owner, or at worst part-owner of Southampton Football Club.
Radio Taxis, Princess Coaches and Hildon Water are club partners, has Gao just paid Ā£200+M to get 80% of the club but he does not get to issue his own statements or call himself anything but a partner?
Is this simply semantics about keeping us fans calm and managing the transition?
Thereās something about this 20% / 80% malarkey that I just canāt get my head round.
What is in it for Kat to have 20% of Gaoās company?
Sentimentality?
Cold hard faith in Gaoās plans for investment?
Or is it just that sheās found someone not demanding 100% ownership and, as sheās already cleared (by some reports) Ā£141M for Family Liebherr, she no longer gives a shit whether the Ā£50M valuation of her remaining shares goes up the shitter or delivers bumper returns?
@dubai_phil usually tries to help me to understand these things.
Help me understand one more time where all this partnership nonsense comes from?
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Wellā¦
Nah think it needs a once upon a time story.
I have a wild guess but it wonāt be a short one.
Anyway last week some Brits were gonna look at us so what do I know
OK campers todayās #1 question.
210 million. 80% of the club. Now NORMALLY numbers like that would be quoted as being the amount paid for that 80% of shares.
Those shares were owned by Kat. So, in a NORMAL commercial deal, Kat gets 210 mil.
Therefore
#1 Whatās in it for Saints? There has been no mention of any sum being invested INTO THE CLUB (Iāll speculate further on that later today)
#2 What has happened to the Balance Sheet of Saints - specifically the āLoansā - ie when NC overspent - does this sum include āInvestmentā to turn that loan finance into Equity finance? That is an important question as Loans need interest AND capital repayment, Equity requires dividends
#3 With all the regulations in place in China, where has Gao transferred the money from? Some sources have implied that he may have āborrowedā that cash.
Now. In relation to #3 some basics - any one of us could have bought Saints FC for 210 million. (And yes that includes Pap or Bazza).
The REASON being that we would be buying āAn Assetā - so as we all learned during the fiverweb takeover days, the āClubā has assets (players, stadium, Staplewood, future revenue streams and even I would expect some Brand Equity) all any of us would need to show is that we are buying 210 million of ASSETS and that the income of the business could afford to pay back the Interest. All ANY of us needed to do was to find a lender.
IF we had borrowed from (for example) the bank, weād have a mortgage that we pay back interest and some capital each month, but equally on a deal this big we could have obtained a Bond where we pay only interest and the Bond becomes due for repayment some time in the future - which is something that Dubai used for their big expansion back in the early 80ās. Providing the Club was still in the EPL when that Bond becomes due for payment it could be ārolled overā or you could resell the club at a profit.
Anyway, I know the meltdown brigade are saying āASSET STRIPā and actually that is a very bad idea - do the maths - our squad is not worth 210 million plus I would bet a bar bill that somehow Kat has manouvered this deal so that while Gao may have 80% of the shares, I bet he does not (yet) have 80% of the VOTING rights. He COULD sell all our first team squad between now and January and do a Rupert playing the kids and bank TV revenues as well and not give a damn about us fans - but FACE and Honour is as important in China as in the Klingon Empire.
Iāll get back to that later.
For now Question #1 Whatās in it for Saints has NOT been answered. Koeman went to Everton for the zillions of transfer budget - where is that now?
Question #3 is the one that worries the SHIT out of me.
Billion Nett worth is all well and good, but it is possible for someone to be Asset Rich and Cash poor. Equally those Assets may not be transferable to cash (the Chinese Property market is a disaster for some at the moment - see earlier post about Dalian Wanda).
He may well have been able to pay by cash from his Building Society Account in China.
Equally he COULD have done a Glazer and simply loaded the debt onto the club (now OR at some point in the future)
Questions do need to be answered - obviouly the CLub will not shout that they have XXXXX million to spend - that is stupid, but saying that the deal includes sufficient funding for the club or an increase in funding or Capital Budgets for Stadium Expansion, Debt not loaded on the club - a lot of simple statements like that would be REALLY helpful right now.
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Kat has said all along that she would be vetting a buyer, I guess we have to trust that she has had a good look at this blokeās plans and his backing, and decided that he is the real deal.
That said, for Ā£210m Iām not sure Iād care to much about where the money came from - though in this situation, itās her fatherās legacy that she is protecting, so I hope that maintaining the good name of Liebherr is motivation enough for her to leave the club in good hands.
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Kat seems infatuated with the daughter. This is the second time that she has said this.
āMrs Nelly Gao, with whom I have built a close relationshipā
Is Kat a carpet muncher and is Nelly leading her up the garden path?
Which Phil is the expert on this subject?
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Not sure - for a clear Ā£140m profit, you can shit on my family name as much as you want. Iād even throw it in as part of the deal.
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Not gonna bit on carpet muching SoS
But I did come across this little gem just now which deserves a repeat
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Only reply you will get from me on such a sensitive subject -
Think Duncan has answered that point.
Where is Oilrigphil - heāll be watching instructional videos about now so may be better placed to do the needful research
Iām reading that as confirmation. The other Phil will have a more expensive view iām sure.
There is actually quite strong legal precedent for this. It is v.common to enter into a partnership where you contribute 80% of the money, and the other party thinks she has equal rights to bitch and criticise and veto your decisions. Itās normally called āMarriageā.
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