OWNER Dragan Solak rubbished rumours he is looking to sell Saints and reaffirmed his financial commitment to the club in a new interview.
Solak is the lead investor of Sport Republic, who acquired former owner Gao Jisheng's majority shareholding in a reported £100million deal in 2022.
Last month, TalkSPORT presenter and former Premier League chairman Simon Jordan repeated a rumour that Saints had been put up for sale.
He later said that Saudi Arabian investor Turki Alalshikh, the mastermind behind Riyadh Season sports, was the man interested in buying the club.
The Daily Echo reported that Solak was not directly looking for a sale, and the Saints chairman has now confirmed he rejected potential talks.
Speaking at a residence in Slovenia, Solak told us: "There is no truth in that rumour. I guess somebody was interested in investing in British football.
Dragan Solak insists he has no intention of selling Saints anytime soon (Image: Stuart Martin)
"Then they probably had the idea of relegated clubs, they might be in trouble. And then Southampton is a prime place, it's a traditional great club.
"They sent me a message and asked, 'Would you like to sell?' And I said, no. They said, 'But yeah, we would like to do this', blah, blah, blah.
"I told them, 'Guys, if you have anything serious, send me a letter explaining your intentions - I am not 100 per cent against having a partner'.
"If you share the vision, if you share the view on how we would like the club to develop, then we can allow somebody to invest alongside me.
"But I just took a firm position that I'm not selling the club, and then, from there on, I never thought for a second about selling the club.
"There were quite a few enquiries, and this is a good thing. Southampton is considered to be a great club and a good investment.
"But whatever they think of Southampton, I think five times higher. I love the club and have no intention of parting with Southampton anytime soon."
When Sport Republic acquired Saints, they vowed in an opening statement to "combine our expertise and deliver something unique to the market".
Billionaire media mogul Solak backed an already successful football director in Rasmus Ankersen, and a trusted business partner in Henrik Kraft.
But Saints have finished bottom in each of their full Premier League seasons under the current owners, who bought the club in January 2022.
Their relegation in the 2022/23 season ended 11 consecutive years in the top flight, while Saints only mustered a measly 12 points last campaign.
Solak's co-owners at Sport Republic - Kraft and Ankersen - have been taken out of the spotlight at Saints following the team's poor performances.
Kraft resigned as Saints chairman in January, with Solak assuming the role, while Ankersen remains on the board but is president at Goztepe.
Dragan Solak pictured alongside former Saints chairman Henrik Kraft (Image: Stuart Martin)
"At the beginning, I didn't think it would be any challenge. I was just coming to football games and enjoying sitting in the director's box," said Solak.
"Southampton was playing unbelievable football, so I'm like, 'Wow, this is actually great'. Then, later in the seasons, I saw the other side of football.
"Personally, I got involved a bit later, but I take full responsibility for every wrong decision that we have made since we invested in the club.
"They are my partners, and I put my faith in them. I know for sure, Henrik and Rasmus never meant to make mistakes or do something wrong.
"But I went from being just an investor, to wanting to be part of the group that receives information, gradually into becoming chairman in January.
"I'm part of discussions practically every day with Phil Parsons, with Johannes Spors, with Mark Bitcon, and with Andy Goldie. That's very different.
"Henrik is still on the board of Sport Republic itself. He's a shareholder, he gets the information, he talks, and he gets to tell me what he thinks.
"Rasmus is still CEO of Sport Republic, but we understood that he should move to a different position, so he is mainly focused on Goztepe.
"He is my personal advisor on transfer windows because I think his knowledge of structure, negotiations, contracts and everything is valuable.
"It's obvious that some of the fans might think that Sport Republic have so far failed - it could be true - but unfortunately for them, I still love the club.
"I'm going to stay for a while, but honestly, if I at any point truly believe that I am the problem for the club, I will put the club up for sale.
"I really cherish the loyalty of the supporters, I cherish their love for the club, and I'm not going to be the guy who is killing the day for them.
"I'm never going to leave the club in financial trouble, and the business of the club will be much better than before Sport Republic came."
Solak intends to serve as chairman for the immediate future, to keep close club contact and make quicker decisions about how to spend his money.
From speaking with Solak over two days, it was immediately obvious that his passion and understanding, and desire for involvement, has grown.
Solak described himself as "not a football guy" when we last interviewed him at length two years ago, but his observations have become astute.
Equally, he understands his role is to authorise and facilitate those he has hired to run the club under a shared vision, including CEO Phil Parsons.
Technical director Johannes Spors has been leading the club's football departments, including recruitment, since he started work in February.
Technical director Johannes Spors, and director of football operations Mark Bitcon (Image: Stuart Martin)
He is effectively the de facto replacement for former director of football Jason Wilcox, who left in April 2024 to join Manchester United.
Solak said: "Unfortunately, we didn't replace Jason. Him leaving was a huge blow, he was the guy who started building this environment.
"Then the bloody Man U came in and stole him from us, and we didn't replace him quickly enough. That was a big mistake, and I take my part in it.
"We went into the Premier League a bit unprepared. We had a very smart manager, Russell Martin, and I still believe he will have a great career.
"But maybe he was a little bit cocky and he came in with his vision, and he wanted to sell it to the Premier League, and that was a risky approach.
"We lost some games to stupid mistakes, and then if I could speak in Serbian about the VAR last season, that would be some speech.
"In Serbian, we have very colourful language, and we go very deep when we explain things, so I'll stick to English. We were super unlucky on VAR.
"That, in my opinion, cost us about eight points that we actually deserved, and then instead of being comfortable, you start feeling the pressure.
"You start to innovate and try things that sometimes can work, but in our case, it didn't. When we started changing, it actually went for worse."
Solak added: "Now, Johannes is a guy who basically tells us who he wants to bring to the club and who he doesn't need - we can give him our opinion.
"But we will never interfere in his decisions regarding the composition of the team. The last word on this is from Johannes and his team.
"We needed him a lot. He brought with him a very focused effort. He's very methodical. He's very smart and has built a good team around him.
"He has positive energy, but he's very tough in decision-making. He's really kind of no bull**** at all. I started really believing in his way of thinking."
Spors has appointed new first-team manager Will Still, 32, who penned a three-year contract at St Mary's ahead of the final match of last season.
Spors made Still his first managerial appointment, permanently replacing Ivan Juric, after the Englishman spent three seasons in France's Ligue 1.
Still led Stade Reims to an 11th-place and ninth-place finish, before taking RC Lens to eighth, just five points off of European qualification.
Solak said: "When Johannes came to me with Will Still, I did not know a lot about him, but when he explained why he likes Will, it made a lot of sense.
Will Still was in attendance at St Mary's for the final match of the 2024/25 Premier League season against Arsenal (Image: PA)
"When I talked to Will, I got the same feeling that there is a lot of value in him. I think that the smartest guys are the ones who are willing to listen.
"He has great emotional intelligence, which is extremely important because he's going to manage 20-plus characters who are difficult to manage.
"The second thing that I like, after the only thing I didn't like that much about Russell and Ivan Juric, is that they were so fundamentalistic.
"My only fundamental idea is success, and then adopting, innovating and doing what you have to do to get there. Will is actually pretty similar.
"When you ask him how he will play, he's like I do all of this for one reason and one reason only, and that is to win the game. I like that approach."
According to the retained list, Saints already have 33 first-team players on their books, not including the new signing of defender Joshua Quarshie.
They will have to reduce the size of the squad by the end of the summer transfer window, which runs from now until 7pm on September 1.
But Solak revealed he authorised Spors to spend in three key areas, before needing to wait for player sales to fund more potential incomings.
"We will have to try to find new homes for a number of our players. We have to size down to maybe 25 or 26 players," explained Solak.
"We are already discussing the potential of selling players, but Johannes has three positions in which he told us we need to buy immediately.
"We gave him this approval and the budget to buy these before we need to sell anything, and the first addition is a defender, Joshua Quarshie.
"He's now working on a striker that he wants no matter what, that should come before we sell anybody, and we are working on a creative midfielder.
"Sales are a bit different. Sometimes we get a lot of calls for players, and there is always a price where we will say yes, but these guys are smart.
"They are not going to come with that price straight away. They will make us a few offers we have to refuse. Johannes is very smart in negotiations.
"But for him, the main focus is on incoming players. He instead gave a list of our players who are available to find new clubs to Rasmus and me.
"We are working on that, we'll consult together, and we'll see how it ends. But honestly, what I see so far is that our final team will be pretty good."
With Solak's investment in the playing team and staff at Saints limited by Profit and Sustainability Rules, he is looking to bolster their business.
Saints have signed a memorandum of understanding with Southampton City Council to explore the potential redevelopment of the St Mary's area.
Dragan Solak and Saints CEO Phil Parsons work closely together on long-term business and infrastructure development (Image: PA)
By increasing their revenue, Saints can directly invest more funds into transfer fees and wages, but Solak is keeping his cards close to his chest.
"I'm extremely superstitious and usually when you talk about business projects too much in advance, they never happen," he quipped.
"Their vision is that the football club is very important for the city, and they want to help us to help them create a better environment for everybody.
"We are developing now together this master plan that looks wonderful and will include changes on the capacity of the stadium and facilities around.
"Everything is heavily scrutinised because we have to invest hundreds of millions, and we're not going to throw that around without being sure.
"But the plans are grand, and if we manage to do it, it will significantly increase the revenue and the substance and sustainability of the club.
"It will not all be about relying on the television rights in the Premier League, but we will have a lot of other commercial revenues and improve the area.
"We are moving in a steady direction. We invested already a lot of money, we never took one penny out, and this is to continue, I can assure you."
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