When they took over Southampton FC, Rasmus Ankersen and his partners in Sport Direct made their intentions clear that they were looking to build a portfolio of football clubs and now they look set to make their second acquisition.

SPORT Republic are reportedly set to complete the acquisition of Turkish club Goztepe SK, based in Izmir the club also has departments in fencing, triathlon, handball, sailing, swimming, and windsurfing.

But early press reports seem unclear whether the purchase will be made by Sport Republic of Rasmus Ankersen himself.

That would not be strange as Ankersen had dual roles as Director of Football at Brentford whilst also being Chairman at FC Midtjylland in Denmark whom Saints fans will remember from knocking us out of the Europe League at the qualifying stage in 2015.

The season just ended has not been a good one for them and they finished 19th out of 20 in the Turkish Super league and will play in the 2nd tier next season.

They play at 20,000 capacity Gürsel Aksel Stadium which was only opened as recently as January 2020.

So what does this mean for Saints, firstly it perhaps indicates that Rasmus Ankerssen the CEO of Sprt Direct will not be as hands on as he was at Brentford where he was Director Of Football, of course he will oversee and have input, but it seems that he leaves the day to day stuff to the directors already in place.

Secondly it will perhaps be to Saints benefit if it is Sport Direct who do buy the club, having connections with clubs across the World would be an advantage in player development.

We will soon find out who is going to be the owner Ankersen personally or Sport Direct.

Photo: Action Images

highfield49 added 10:16 - Jun 6 As mere supporters of the club I suppose the business activities of the owners shouldn't really be of concern. That still doesn't stop me being concerned though because the lack of communication and transparency doesn't seem to have changed much, if at all, since Gao departed. Rumour and deafening silence, coupled with the expanding portfolio of clubs, is a bit disconcerting. Is there any benefit whatsoever to SFC when the owners invest elsewhere?

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SaintNick added 11:12 - Jun 6 One thing no clubs does in a transfer window is announce their intentions to the public and therefore push up the transfer fee's to be paid and also alert other clubs who could hijack the move. I agree that the Saints media department is appalling at getting things out there at times, but we have a slight advantage at the moment in that no one knows our intentions and that is good, lets do our bragging when deals are done, not in telling people what we are going to do

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underweststand added 11:20 - Jun 6 (highfield49)...surely you mean invest elsewhere - AS WELL . Clubs like Saints are often bandied around as "small fry" in the footballing world, and Sport Republic won't spend billions on buying up a few smaller clubs in other lands. Every club must have an owner with stable economy, and won't have to dig up a Chelsea/ Man U / City/ sized salary bill after signings. The idea that small clubs can be developed and show major improvements is surely born out, if we just remember where Saints were back in 2009. Finding promising young talents plus the best coaches available may show results in a year or two. At least we'd have good connections that young players could be loaned out to, and even get a few loan players in ourselves sounds pretty positive to me. I am also a little frustrated waiting for more news, but unlike other clubs who do their business via the social media, Saints have always kept their cards close to their chest and waited until the ink is dry on the contract before bringing in the club's photographer and interviewer. So I guess we will have to wait a little longer for new updates.

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Bulgarian added 12:14 - Jun 6 Last month there were strong rumours that Solak is in negotiations to buy Levski Sofia, one of the biggest clusb in Bulgaria. It appeared that talks are ongoing, as Levski have some uncleared debts. Solak himself has strong business positions in the country, so it would't be a surprise if "Bulgarian giants" Levski become a satellite club for the Saints. It also appears that SR have strong interest in the Balkans, so it would't be a surprise if we hear about other clubs from the Balkans. In my understanding, there is no difference whether future clubs will be formally bought by Solak, Ankersen or other persons within SR. What is important is that the plan for a network of clubs with the English one being the top asset is very much in the making. Good news for Saints supporters.

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highfield49 added 17:52 - Jun 6 I didn't make my earlier point very well Nick and there was no intention to suggest that the club should broadcast the names of potential signings or brag about deals in the pipeline. I feel that a statement of intent regarding investment in SFC, as well as a club in Turkey, would have been useful. In the meantime I'll just have to settle for the excitement of the bidding war for the signatures of Long, Walcott, Stephens etc, after they've collected their loyalty bonuses of course.

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