"No intention" - Southampton FC owner Dragan Solak drops firm takeover claim amid Turki Alalshikh interest | OneFootball

Previous rumours about the club being up for sale have dispelled.

Southampton FC chairman Dragan Solak has stated that he has "no intention" of selling the club any time soon.

The price of teams in and around the Premier League is only going to keep on rising over time.

The likes of Wrexham advancing up the EFL, who have most recently tried to sell shares at a valuation of £350 million, show how you can buy a British team on the cheap and, if it's ran extremely well, and has a lot of financial backing, it can be turned into a juggernaut.

Solak didn't take the exact same approach when his Sport Republic group bought the Saints, who were in the top flight, for £100 million from former owner Gao Jisheng in January 2022.

The club has yo-yoed between the top two divisions since the media mogul's takeover, with the most recent relegation last season sparking rumours that he may look to cash in on Southampton.

TalkSPORT presenter and former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan stoked this fire when he said on national radio that he'd heard Solak and his partners were looking for a way out of St Mary's.

This, however, was quickly disputed by Hampshire outlet the Daily Echo, with Jordan himself claiming that Saudi boxing mogul Turki Alalshikh had his eye on the Saints as a club of interest for a potential takeover.

Dragan Solak reveals that he isn't looking to sell Southampton

Solak has now confirmed his intent to stick with the Saints as they look to rebuild with new boss Will Still and challenge for promotion back to the Premier League for the second time in three seasons.

"There is no truth in that rumour," Solak said to the Daily Echo.

"I guess somebody was interested in investing in British football. 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."

Southampton sale suggestions always felt a bit off - Dragan Solak is committed to the cause

There had been suggestions that the Serbian businessman would consider selling the club for double what Sport Republic paid for it initially, but the suggestions that £125 million would be enough for them felt silly at the time and have obviously been proven to be way off the mark.

If they can get things right, there's huge potential for the value of the club to skyrocket.

Nothing suggests that the money Premier League teams earn from TV rights and the other central payments they get from being in the first division will suddenly diminish.

If Southampton can re-establish themselves as a top flight outfit, as they were for much of the 2010s, even double what Solak and his partners paid probably wouldn't be enough.