Sport RSS Feed


Souness linked with Saints takeover

7:52am Tuesday 13th March 2007

comment Comments (8)   Have your say »


FORMER Dell boss Graeme Souness has been linked with a takeover of Saints.

Souness hit the headlines two months ago when he made an official £20m bid to take over Wolves.

That offer was rejected, but the former Scottish international has always maintained his bid remains on the table.' It was never made public whether the £20m Souness mentioned was purely for team strengthening or just to gain control of the club.

Now Souness has watched Saints' last two games, at Preston and Stoke.

He still has a house in Hampshire from his time as Saints boss in 1996/97, but the property - near Winchester - was up for sale earlier this year.

Saints' search for new investors is still ongoing in the wake of chairman Michael Wilde's resignation last month.

Wilde's inability to attract new investment to St Mary's was the primary reason he stepped down after just eight months in the chair.

Souness' bid to takeover Wolves back in January was backed by Scottish businessman Brian Kennedy, the owner of top English rugby union club Sale Sharks.

Kennedy has always been keen to buy into professional football.

Nine years ago he made a failed attempt to buy Hibernian. He then failed in his bid to buy London Scottish RFC, relocate them to Edinburgh and play in the English Premiership.

Instead, he turned his attentions to Sale, who won the English title last season for the first time.

Souness, meanwhile, has been out of football since being sacked by Newcastle 13 months ago. He had spent less than two years in charge on Tyneside after leaving Blackburn in September 2004.

He had been manager of Rovers since March 2000 - his first English job since leaving Saints in the wake of Rupert Lowe's arrival as chairman in June 1997.

Souness' resignation also triggered the departure of Lawrie McMenemy, who of course is now back on the board at Saints.

Were Souness to show any interest in taking over Saints, though, the situation would not be as easy as at Wolves.

That's due to Saints' PLC structure - unlike Wolves, who are owned by one man, Sir Jack Hayward.

Saints' current stock market value is just under £13m.


Your Say YourThis is Hampshire

MARTIN WILD, Lymington says...
9:28am Tue 13 Mar 07

The way they are playing they are not worth £13 m. The team shows very little interest in playing for promotion let alone playing for anything else, a cut in wages and bonus for a draw a bigger one for a win?

Gordon Mockles, Southampton says...
12:47pm Tue 13 Mar 07

Get someone new in, at least Souness knows the right people and could add something to the club. Maybe he's even question Burley and his consistent over-optimism and his ever encouraging words to the press when we're clearly playing sh*te!! I'd at least hope but it's probably just a rumour sparked by Souness merely watching a game (something I'm sure he regretted wasting his time doing!) The club was good when Lawrie and Souness were last present (until Lowe went u-turn on the transfer funds he'd promised and Souness, rightly, walked!)

Burley just seems to bring in his mates who aren't much to shout about (and play people out of position), not select those who may have trained hard to break into the squad and he loans out the decent youth players and instills no confidence or motivation in the players. What's going on with Idiakez too? I'm fed up of saying "sort it out" it's too late. F*ckin useless w*nkers show no commitment, bar one or 2 players, so we're getting what we deserve. If we did get promotion (which looks pretty bleak now thanks to our non-existent battling spirit), we'd not win a single game in the Premiership. Can't even kill off games when we're 2 up against p*ss poor opposition. What the **** would we do against someone half decent? Make loads of chances, hit them straight at the keeper, over the bar or wide of goal and then moan about how we'd played better but not taken our chances and lost points?! zzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZ should have picked up points in the easy games, bit late moaning about the Preston game when we've thrown away too many points already and should have been battling from day one.

We need too many new players which we will never buy seeing as the board don't put in any investment themselves, nor anyone seems to have any ambition for the club. We're a joke! We have too much cr*p in our squad and the few half decent players will be gone end of season, replaced by someone inferior, just happy to pick up his pay cheque, lessening the squad even more (if possible!). We need players who earn their money, who are proud to wear their team colours and who fight for the cause. The mentality of our current squad is pathetic and we don't deserve to go up! Wasted WAYYYY too many points and never take the chance when it's there for the taking. The fans have been more than patient, I, for one, have had enough. P*ss take of a club!!

:o(

R.Antinanely, Southampton says...
1:04pm Tue 13 Mar 07

Blimey Gordon - who took the jam out of your doughnut!!!

c murray, ashford in kent says...
1:33pm Tue 13 Mar 07

burley been saying all season well we played well never took our chances.that k davies has cost us to many points this season dont deserve to wear the number one shirt. the fans have had enough when wild took over full of rubbbish said he had all the backing **** take the lot of them

Gordon Mockles, Southampton says...
4:43pm Tue 13 Mar 07

lol - I know, squirted all over my lap when Baird scored that own goal against Preston! Just had enough, the team lack the belief, quality and the desire and it winds me up. Can't even play simple football well and pass to their own team. Viafara against Stoke - Phuh!! As for Davies, go away! We've all been more than patient. Well, enough is enough! Say it how it is!! depressing! :o(

Dave, says...
5:14pm Tue 13 Mar 07

i recon we realy need a proven business man like richard branson

Angree Bystander, Hardley says...
1:47am Wed 14 Mar 07

Bout Time the teamstarted to wake up and smell the cawfee... Time is running out, its now or never, stop messing around girls and get it together.......

Marteene Tyrell, Holbury says...
1:51am Wed 14 Mar 07

I Love that Graeme Souness chap, lets hope he gets it together for us, if not I am up to gang warily at the weekend to watch a proper match...........

Comments are closed on this article.

Local Information

Enter your postcode, town or place name

House prices »   Schools »   Crime »   Hospitals »