Interestingly the owner of Southampton FC, a certain Gao Ji Sheng, is seeking to offload his 80% share in the club (Sunday Times 8th March). This would seem to contradict the claims of the above clip: https://www.facebook.com/groups/832788543495740/permalink/2689079471199962
He's allegedly seeking £250M for 80% Southampton (equiv £312.5 all in). This makes you wonder how much Lai currently values The Albion.
Thought I'd open up this topic about the speculation about Lai and a possible sale to of all people Mike Ashley.
And lo and behold the above post is very relevant to the debate that has broken out on the Covid-19 thread
To update it has been reported that the asking price has been dropped by £50m as the pandemic has worsened.
So this speaks to a couple of themes. That the Chinese and in particular Lai won't sell at a loss because of the loss of face. Yes he will because he is a businessman and if there is no realistic route back to the £200m valuation then take a loss and move on.
My view is that if Ashley were to be interested in a club it would be one of sufficient stature that it could tick over at a mid Premier level without him investing anything other than the initial purchase price, and he then could extract whatever value he could for Sports Direct.
I honestly think we aren't quite big enough the relegation risk is a little too high. Then I thought Southampton they would be ideal. He needs to pick them up for no more than £100m for the trick to work so although the current ownership is frantically looking for the exit the valuation is still too high but watch this space.