Southampton: Joseph DaGrosa’s Saints takeover plan explained

Southampton have been linked with a takeover bid by American businessman Joseph DaGrosa for a while now and his radical plans for the club have now been explained.

Valuable information from the Athletic – specifically reporters Matt Slater and Dan Sheldon – has confirmed just what a potential transfer of power from current majority shareholder Gao Jisheng to DaGrosa would mean.

Their reports suggest that DaGrosa and Jisheng are stalling in negotiations over the value of the latter’s shares. Gao is said to value his 80% stake at St Mary’s at £160m, although DaGrosa feels this should drop due to the impact of the pandemic.

Crucially, the Athletic reveal that DaGrosa’s Kapital Football Group want to build a network of clubs similar to the City Football Group or Red Bull GmbH. This would involve Saints or another Premier League club as a central focal point for a worldwide group of academies, affiliated clubs and footballing expertise.

Would a DaGrosa takeover be good for Southampton?

The main concern for Saints fans with a plan like this will be wanting to keep the true values of the club at heart. The academy and the close connection with fans remains paramount to what, in their eyes, sets the club apart from many others – especially in the Premier League.

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Given that club understand this and have taken steps to improve academy output, club infrastructure and transparency to its fans in recent times, this will surely all be at the centre of any move into a new era of ownership.

Fans have to balance this with the fact that they also want the club to be competing at the top end of the Premier League table and going on to qualify for Europe in the future. Adding more quality signings to Ralph Hasenhuttl’s squad is key to this and additions would be more realistic if Saints were coming out of the pandemic under new ownership.

Networks like the previously mentioned City Football Group and Red Bull GmbH are often criticised and protested against by rival fans of Manchester City or RB Leipzig, but this structure would certainly provide better foundations for success.

There is no way that Saints would allow past academy history or their connection with the fanbase to disappear when they are eventually sold. In actual fact, they will surely be doing everything in their power to keep these factors at the centre of plans.

Dan Sheldon’s report on the takeover situation says that there are other parties from the US, Europe and the Middle East interested too so we can assume that movement is not too far away, and fans should only see this as an opportunity for the club to advance.

Improvements will be made to parts of the club that need it, but those components that have kept Saints moving throughout their history will surely be maintained and built upon.