According to media reports the deadline for Lander to complete the deal to buy a majority shareholding in Saints expires today, will it now happen ?
According to Paul Nicholson of Inside World Football August 1st is the day that Lander's exclusitivity to buy into Saints expires and that Katharina Liebherr now has to decide whether to give them more time, reopen bidding with the deal still on the table or pull out completely.
The exact reason for Lander not completing has been a little clouded, but assumed to be Lander have not been able to get the Chinese Government to let the money out of the country, they seem to blow hot and cold on football investment, a year ago they were happy for Chinese clubs to pay out big money and encouraged investment in sport abroad, but that position seems to change, perhaps worryingly going forward.
But there is also rumour according to Nicholson that Lander chairman Jisheng Gao is still trying to raise the full £210 million to buy the majority 80% shareholding in the club.
He goes on to claim that in sticking with Lander that ironically Saints missed out on another Chinese investor with more clout, but they would buy 100% or nothing and Katharina Liebherr feels that she wants to ensure that her Fathers legacy is continued with still holding that 20%.
The article states that Gao put briefed the media that it was Katharina Liebherr having second thoughts about the sale but that appears to be a smokescreen to buy more time.
That seems to have tested Kat's patience and she could now be concerned that Lander are really the people to take Saints to the next level.
The good news is that there appear to be other investors interested, Nicholson says that although Chinese money seems to have dried up not just with Saints but elsewhere, the US is still an area with plenty of potential owners and that there is at least one that is interested.
How much of a stumbling block Kat holding on to 20% could be is unclear as is if she would be willing to relinquish that to an American owner who she might see as being more able to take the club foward than Lander or for that matter another Far East owner who sometimes can be volatile.
West Bromwich Albion are valued at £225 million so for a full sale Saints might go for more than that.
Some Saints fans claim that Katharina Liebherr doesn't invest or have the money to do so and therefore should sell up and go so that someone who could can come in.
That is a very selfish and ungrateful attitude, without the Liebherr family this club would have gone to the wall and been liquidated, it was within days or doing so back in 2009, since her Father's death Katharina has done nothing but good for the club and put in place a structure that makes us the envy of many other clubs and taken us to a position in football that we have never enjoyed before with a consistency never matched.
We would all do well to remember that and the fat that she is not just selling to the first bidder, but making sure that all the work her family have done in the last 8 years does not go straight down the drain as the plaything of some billionaire who doesn't really care two hoots about his club.