So, its been yet another crazy week at the Saints. Ridiculous really! The week started with optimism, with hopes that a takeover would be imminent. But this has not transpired. The national press quoted a spokesman for Paul Allen's Vulcan investment company as say he had never had any interest in investing in the football club. The daily echo, then followed this up by stating they had been receiving emails to that effect for the previous fortnight. The story then got carried on The Saint (the club radio station). At this point the prospects of an Allen takeover looked extremely bleak indeed.
At this point there were still many people claiming to have inside information, say that talks were still ongoing with Allen's people, but they had not been smooth. These statements were backed up when Radio Solent reported that an inside source said talks were still ongoing. At this point the Echo put out another story saying pretty much the same thing. Information coming out now, from relatively reliable sources, suggest that the talks had been in difficulty, but the board were trying to rescue the situation. The reason for these problems has not become clear. Whether it is to do with members of the board, the sale of Gareth Bale, or related property issues is unknown.
This is all a bit of a downer compared with this time last week!! One thing is for sure, talks with someone are still ongoing as the company is still in a bid situation. Who with is also a mystery, rumours of a Souness-led consortium or business men from the far east are all vague.
What is clear from all this is that Saints need some investment. Transfer activity seems to have frozen in the last week. Reports suggesting we had signed Saganowski have dried up, as has talk of an approach from Guthrie and no more word on Baird's potential exit. This could be because Burley has been away on holiday, or it could be because the takeover talks in a delicate stage and assets can't be offloaded or acquired.
I am not one of the people who are panicking and demanding swift action, but it would be nice to see that this is going somewhere and progress is being made. In order for Saints to really compete next season we need to sign a couple of big, strong centre backs, and along with the potential signings of Saga and Guthrie, we should be able to challenge for the automatic positions next season.
Lets all just keep our fingers crossed for some good news soon!!
