Southampton sold players to fend off the threat of administration

[davieG]

From Sky

George Burley has confirmed he was forced into selling Southampton players to fend off the threat of administration.

Following Saints' failure to win promotion back to the Premier League and their parachute payments ceasing, the South Coast side were left with a cash shortfall.

Burley helped fill the void by cashing in on the likes of Gareth Bale and Chris Baird to Tottenham and Fulham respectively, while Pele also recently departed to rivals West Brom.

Burley was desperate for Saints to avoid going into administration, after seeing Leeds pay a heavy price, and is now looking to bolster his depleted Saints squad.

"I spent the summer bringing money in to keep the club out of administration," he told Sky Sports. "We've done that.

"We lost our parachute money. I was aware of that. We sold Pele for £1million.

"So we're looking to bring players in. I'm very pleased with the signing Youssef Safri.

"We'll keep working hard because it'll take time to get as strong as last season, but we're confident we'll do it."

[Micky Ruddle]

Fair play to him then.

You gotta do, what you gotta do.

[Tevez]

I never knew Southampton was in that much trouble.

[Fez of Mahrez]

Told you.

[kidder_wolf]

I also thought they were in trouble and Picked Burley in the sack race comp.

Sheff Wed are another side in trouble and are set to struggle this season even though alot of people are tipping them to maybe make the play offs.

[Manwell Pablo]

Told you.

As did I, about 15 minutes before this article was published funnily enough.

[Mort]

Told you.

Ditto... remember saying this when we were after Saga.

Saints are still losing money hand over fist, they spent massively last season gambling on promotion before the parachute payments cut out and they didn’t get promoted… making an already tightening financial situation worse.

They’ve now got a weaker squad (having sold key players), have very little cash and the much mooted take-over has come to nothing… and things are only going to get tighter for them, admittedly it’s early in the season but if their current form doesn’t change then they’ll be in a full blown crisis before Christmas.

[Geo V]

That answers a few questions then! How they could sell over £15m worth of players and hardly replace them was weird but that just about answers the questions! Southampton looked a really good attacking side last season and the natural thinking would be that they would invest the £10m from the Bale sale and be stronger for this season but now they are nothing more than a mid-table side IMO. Its good news for us I suppose?

[Fez of Mahrez]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ton/6949226.stm

[Simi]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ton/6949226.stm

Kenwyne Jones money ?

[Fez of Mahrez]

Kenwyne Jones money ?

Perhaps so but you'd think if administration was a threat they'd have got someone in on loan or something instead. £1.2million seems steep for a club in financial trouble, especially for such an average player.

[mancunianfox]

I'd been saying that too. I thought Southampton's financial trouble was common knowledge?

[Geo V]

Looking back I wish they were in so much shite that they couldn't even sanction the Saganowski transfer as I would have loved him to come on board, and so would Milan (not sure about MA though )

[dandannieldanok]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ton/6949226.stm

I'm slightly baffled too, firstly where has the cash come from and secondly why pay so much for him, I know they're desperate but IMO they have been ripped off. As Steve Cotterill has said, Burnley have donw good business selling him for £1.2m and buying Clarke Carlisle, who is a very similar player, for £200,000-£250,000.