Our new contributor Arron makes his debut on the home page by asking whether the potential takeover currently awaiting ratification will mean Saints won't be spending till the outcome is known ?

With all eyes seeming fixed on the Mangers situation at the club, the summer transfer market is now a month from being officially open and Les Reed along with Ross Wilson and his scouting team will be working hard trying to secure deals for the players they have identified as targets to add to the side this summer.

However hanging over this in the background is the issue of a potential takeover of the club from Chinese based company Lander Holdings, although Chairman Ralph Kruger has stated in a recent interview that it will not affect the clubs business either via incomings or outgoings.

Although if a potential takeover deal is close to being ratified by the Premier League as some rumours suggest, would Katharina be prepared to wait before sanctioning any signings so that Lander rather than her was responsible to fronting the cash for the deal?

Now I personally don’t believe that would be the case for a number of reasons, the first being the club has been structured to be run efficiently like a business for a few years now and would not ask the owner for a personal cash injection to buy players.

Secondly Southampton are well known not be huge spenders on individual players this is highlighted by the fact our record signing is currently the £16 million pounds spent on Sofiane Boufal which in the world of modern football is a relatively low figure.

An Injection of club investment from either Lander or an as yet unknown party could see that policy change in the future, and is definitely needed is to the club is to pursue continued progression and one day achieve its ultimate aim of securing Champions League football.

Hopefully the saga of the takeover reaches a conclusion soon, and Saints are able to get their transfer business done early in the window to bed any new additions in quickly and get a full preseason with the team.

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 12:46 - Jun 1 Any deal needs to be done sooner, rather than later. This uncertainty and speculation isn't healthy. That said, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think Lander are going to be anything to get excited about. We could do with a bigger backer.
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JGH added 12:48 - Jun 1 Very poorly written article, not just in respect of the typos and spelling/grammar mistakes we're all accustomed to on this site. Is there a point you're trying to make bar the incredibly obvious?
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IWOZTHERE added 13:13 - Jun 1 I think we are in a worrying state of 'limbo' and will be until the 'sale' is either confirmed or abandoned. The deal on the table is suggested to be 80% for about £220m.That is a controlling interest. I assume player values are factored into that. If you say 70m for VVD, that's about a third of the money in question.If he is sold for example, who's money is it, or more to the point, who will decide what happens with that money? I suspect it's straightforward and I'm just being naive, but I WOULD like to know just what we are supposed to be selling?

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WanderingSaint added 14:40 - Jun 1 Chinese law prohibits people being stated on balance sheets as assets with a monetary value. that was reported as an issue in previous Chinese bids, maybe even this one. The value will be based upon current assets less current liabilities, plus projected profit for x years, where x varies depending on business sector. Not sure what the multiplayer is for football clubs. That said, Lander will no doubt believe that they increase profits significantly by breaking into the Asian markets and massively increase commercial income. That's what Krueger was bought in for and this potential deal should achieve that.

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MSB added 15:01 - Jun 1 Am fed up to the teeth with the club selling all our best players. If the derisory offer is allowed then I think this will continue
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eastcoastsaint added 16:03 - Jun 2 Thanks for the article Arron- nice job. There's not much for us saints fans to do but speculate and anticipate at the moment, and I like reading anything out there about our team. Saints are now at another offseason crossroads but, as was stated by the chairman, we don't need to sell.The squad contract situation is strong. Taking that statement at face value for now, the major hurdle is player unrest. They've had a season of largely unfulfilling,inconsistent football. We have some very good players underperforming or underutilized. Expecting Van Dijk to stay is unrealistic given his profile now, but it's up to him to fight to leave. Saints know his value won't drop if they hold out another season,so could resist all offers in hopes of strengthening the whole team. By all accounts he seems pretty level headed. Van Dijk staying one more year is the part of the key to raising saints image to both the team itself and also us fans and our wider public perception. The other part is an inspiring manager. This transitional period of possible new ownership and possible management changes is very delicate, and the stakes couldn't be higher. What manager, that WE would REALLY want to join us(enough to displace Puel who on paper had a good season, on grass a mostly boring one), until they knew where our ownership was heading? What can the current ownership do until a deal one way or the other for the major ownership stake is settled?

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SaintBrock added 16:28 - Jun 2 Possibly or possibly not. A daft question deserves a daft answer
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