Daily Echo reporter Alfie House has been giving updates on the potential sale of Southampton Football Club and it's not as has been reported in the media so far.

givemesport.com have been quoting comments made by journalist Alfie House about Dragan Solak selling his 80% share of the club.

Speaking to Total Saints Podcast about the potential sale of the club, House had this to say:

"Clearly that situation is alive in the sense that there are people out there with money who want to buy a football club, so anything's possible.

" I think, based on what I've been told, it sounds like, Solak is still sort of quite closely attuned to long-term planning, and I've also got it on pretty good authority that he wouldn't sell the club for £125m.

"So that number, which was part of the rumour that went around, that was wrong, at least. So does that sort of detract from the entire rumour? I don't know. So there's positive signs there. But I think, as Steve has said, everything is for sale."

So as we have reported on this site, House has confirmed what we believe, that Southampton FC is up for sale in the same way that literally every club in the country is, every owner has his price and if Dragan Solak is made an offer he can't refuse then he would sell.

But as it stands Solak is still committed to the club and the longer term plan is still in place.

givemesport.com go on to say that their sources have indicated that the starting price if Solak was to entertain selling would be in excess of £200 million.

That is a lot of money and with the so called Big 7 in the Premier League increasingly finding it harder to win trophies and qualify for the Champions League, potential owners rich enough to invest in football clubs are becoming rarer and rarer.

The big investors want success, not to invest a lot of money to finish 8th.

So for the moment it seems that Sport Republic will remain as owners of SFC, some will be appalled, but perhaps we should all consider that sometimes it is better the devil you know, than one you don't

Football is littered with bad owners, perhaps Sport Republic will turn out to be one of them, but we can't accuse them of being that just yet, yes they have made mistakes, but they have always tried to do the right thing, they have thrown money at the team, but recruited badly those tasked to spend it.

When they have got the right people in place, they have had the misfortune to have them poached by big clubs soon after joining.

Now they have recruited a new Technical Director, perhaps they can get things back on track agai.

A year ago we hoped they had, but we can now look back at the mistakes made and hopefully can see them being rectified.

All Photos Via Reuters

saintmark1976 added 22:25 - May 6 “ Football is littered with bad owners, perhaps Sports Republic will turn out to be one of them, but we can’t accuse them of being that just yet”. Two Premier League relegations in three years together with large numbers of paid for season ticket holders in open revolt not bothering to turn up at St Mary’s and you really believe what you’ve written Nick? By any standard, acceptance of their ownership and control on the basis that such a low bar meets supporter wises, is nothing if not interesting I suppose.

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kingolaf added 22:31 - May 6 I think the problems were down to the involvement of a couple of complete charlatans in Kraft and Ankersen. Solak has recognised that and taken action. I agree with Nick on this, better the devil you know. We’ve got Spors in place now. The choice of new manager will tell us everything we need to know about the direction SR are taking us in.
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andoverpedro added 08:20 - May 7 he wont sell us Saints provide the money and the players for the rest of the group , we are free ride for the rest of them . if he sells us he might as well sell the rest . He is not a bad owner just doesnt understand football , he employed Kraft for that and he fecked it up . also it didnt help when every scout and football director keeps getting poached. about time they went and screwed brighton and bournemouth over and raped them for all their players and supply chain, scouts, managers etc just like southampton over the last 15 years

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redwight added 13:06 - May 7 Completely agree with you andoverpedro. For years it has been the case that Saints, almost uniquely, have been unable to hold onto the best players/staff. Lavia, Livramento and Wilcox to name but three. Somehow this doesn't seem to happen to Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton and now Forest. On the rare occasions when they are forced to sell, the replacements seem to be of similar quality. We used to be able to do the same. Everything comes down to recruitment in the end and ours has been rubbish.

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Block8 added 14:36 - May 7 All of the smaller clubs sell their best players, it's the way of the world in the PL. Bournemouth sold Solanke for £60 million, Brentford sold Toney & Raya for around £74 million and Brighton sold Caicedo & MacAllister for around £158 million! The difference being they have all recruited wisely, without being afraid to go big on one player. We cast our net wide and recruited a lot of players at, in PL terms, very little individual cost. SR haven't been afraid to spend, £123 million this season, Bellis & Downes, neither looking like PL quality, costing £23 & £18 million respectively, Archer £17.5 million, Suguwara £7 & Diaz £8.5 million have all been a failure at this level. Ramsdale & Fernandes the only real successes at £21 & £15 million respectively. So SR really need to see what money we can retrieve and hopefully spend better to reinvigorate the club and get us back to respectability!

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nysaint added 18:52 - May 7 I think it comes down to the wages policy, we dont offer enough to bring true PL quality. I think we have to figure out how to keep players and not have a model that is all about capital gains on potential players on small wages. Lets get some experienced players in as well as youth. Although Adam was injured for part of this season I do think he proves how experience and on field leadership can make a huge differnce to a team.

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Boris1977 added 22:51 - May 7 Sports Republic have messed up every big call on the managerial front and with few exceptions on the playing front too. We do seem to be an easy touch for the big teams to buy our players with the low point being the mid 2010s when we sold Lambert, llanna, clyne, lovren and a few others one season and then another handful the following summer. JRod only stayed as he got badly injured. That was galling to say the least as an average Leicester won the league a few years later. However I think nowadays the big teams generally look overseas to proven international talent rather than premiership talent at the likes of our potential peers ie boscombe, Brentford Brighton etc. ok they sell the odd player to bigger teams but not on the scale that we did in the past. However, now that changes have been made at board level this should mean there is a proper strategy and someone making decisions based on evidence rather than the lucky dip of the last couple of years. Therefore sports Republic deserve at least one more season to prove they can recruit a decent manager and provide him with the correct playing staff to fit his ideas. If they get it wrong again.....I don't really want to think about that COYRs

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IanRC added 10:32 - May 8 Long term strategy, what is that aimed at, division 3 ?
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underweststand added 11:23 - May 8 I go along with Block 8. Those people who make claims about us not being as selling club are still wearing rose-coloured glasses. There are perhaps half-a dozen clubs in the Prem. who spend £100 million every season without blinking an eye, however when we spend that sort of money we buy 4 or 5 players for that amount and don't always get good deals. If we hadn't sold Lavia and Livramento ..and later JWP and Co. when we did , we would never have the finances to go out and spend anything at all. Dragan was courageous in buying into the club, but he won't be spending multi-millions every season, and the sale of our best prospects must be available to cover the eventual costs of new signings. To be fair, every ambitious player wants to play at the highest possible level (for them) and no-one in our fan base should complain if we lose our best at the end of the season. I think of players like Ross Stewart who must have wished for a better time with Saints, and no amount of salary (even when injured) can replace two lost years of an all-too-short career span at the higher levels. A pause for thought, when we " less-wealthy clubs" go out and spend really big only to end up with a player in rehab for a year or more. I'd praise Dragan if he sticks with us, but we know that everything has a price - even clubs. .

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