Saints struggle to adjust

Majority stakeholder Sport Republic has an office at Southampton’s training ground, Staplewood. Despite being relegated from the Premier League last season, the club remain the jewel in its multi-club model, and getting Southampton’s affairs in order is imperative to the broader operation. The owner has two other clubs — Turkish second-tier side Goztepe, purchased in August 2022, and Ligue 2 outfit Valenciennes, acquired in July this year.

Lead investor Dragan Solak, a Serbian telecoms billionaire, took out a £110million ($133.4m by today’s rates) loan to buy Southampton in December 2021. The loan was from Luxembourg-registered company Summer Invest Sarl, which is owned by Solak and is a majority shareholder in his telecom company United Group. This was unrelated to Southampton’s cash flow and the loan was not to be repaid out of club accounts.

Since then, however, Solak has regularly provided Southampton with cash injections, covering “general running costs” and essentially footing the bill for Sport Republic’s overhaul in infrastructure. In April, Solak sunk in a further £15m, taking his additional investment to £63m over seven months.

Seeing little bang for his buck, Solak intended to be more proactive in the decision-making this season after his first full year of owning the club ended in relegation and fallout off the pitch. As The Athletic reported in May, there had been a feeling from observers close to Solak and the United Group that the club had been “burning cash” in their operational costs, most notably in player and managerial recruitment. Solak, however, remains committed and he would continue to invest if financial fair play (FFP) regulations allowed.

Wasted money?

Over the summer, a whole matchday squad’s worth of players departed — either on loan or permanently — including seven of the 15 signings made last summer and in January. Wasted money has been a sore point for some staff since Southampton, as is often the case following relegation, made club-wide cuts and redundancies. There is an acknowledgement internally Southampton should have replaced outgoings with more players earlier,

Last season’s disastrous Premier League campaign has notably damaged members of the dressing room. As a consequence, adjusting to a different approach has proven difficult for some players — it is partly why, following their first setback against Sunderland in a heavy 5-0 defeat, the squad is yet to bounce back.

The protracted nature of player sales — even Ward-Prowse and Lavia started the season with Southampton — caused consternation among those players who wanted out, complicating Martin’s attempts to drive through his vision.

There is an acceptance that players have been making too many individual mistakes on transition, resulting in Southampton conceding 19 goals from just eight games — the league’s highest. An expected goal against (xGA) total of 14.2 suggests it is not as if luck is conspiring against them, either.

The sky is often darkest before the break of dawn, but the example of Stoke City shows what can happen to once solid top flight clubs. As my son-in-law and other friends are season ticket holders, I hope they bounce back soon.

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000. The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts. Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day ...

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...

The Political Economy of Football V2

Search This Blog