"I'm always cautious" - Reaction given to Southampton FC, Turki Alalshikh takeover news | OneFootball

FLW’s Southampton fan pundit isn’t excited about the prospect of the Saudi billionaire taking over the South Coast club.

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Southampton have made early preparations for their return to the Championship by appointing Will Still as manager.

The former Reims boss has linked up on the South Coast on a three-year deal and has returned to his homeland to be closer to his family.

The 32-year-old is tasked with delivering immediate promotion back to the big time and then helping to consolidate the Saints’ place as an established Premier League outfit for years to come.

Meanwhile, the ownership of Southampton has been called into question recently, with TalkSPORT’s Simon Jordan claiming that famous Saudi billionaire and boxing promoter Turki Alalshikh has expressed an interest in buying second tier clubs Southampton and Millwall.

Speaking on talkSPORT's White and Jordan show, Jordan was asked if rumours linking Alalshikh with Millwall were true, and he opened up about a surprise interest in Southampton too.

Jordan said: “No it's not talk, they are interested because they've told me.

"I've told him and tried to talk him out of Millwall because I don't think it's a proper football club, but that's a different discussion.

"But it is Millwall, and he likes Southampton. I suggested Sheffield Wednesday to him. He doesn't want Sheffield Wednesday.

"He doesn't want a club in the north. He wants a club in the south. And Millwall and Southampton are the two clubs that he thinks are interesting to him."

With this in mind, Football League World’s Southampton fan pundit has issued their thoughts on whether they would welcome investment from Alalshikh.

Southampton urged on the sign of caution following Turki Alalshikh takeover rumours

Speaking to Football League World, Saints fan pundit Martin Sanders believes technical director Johannes Spoors and owner Dragan Solak are making the best efforts for the club, and doesn’t believe Turki Alalshikh will transform their fortunes as expected by the masses.

Sanders said: “I’ve seen what Simon Jordan had to say. I’m always cautious. I think Johannes Spoors has come in and set some foundations in place on the footballing side and I think we need stability as a football club now. Spoors is the sporting director, and he’s chosen the manager; Dragon Solak is a wealthy man, but there’s only so much money he can put in as they can’t spend it all, which is always the biggest issue.

“They’re doing a lot of work around the ground infrastructure wise, which is really good, and I think you need to be careful what you wish for sometimes. Our owners have taken a huge amount of flack, and rightly so, they’ve got a lot of big decisions wrong. They’re on their final managerial appointment that they have to get right as they’ve overseen two relegations in their tenure.

“I remain apprehensive (about the Turki Alashikh links), and my friend texted me today that it would be brilliant for us, but I’ve got a reserved judgement at the moment.”

Southampton right to be cautious about Turki Alashikh takeover prospect

While Turki Alalshikh has helped transform the sport of boxing since his involvement, he hasn’t quite had the same impact on football, with the billionaire’s only investment coming at Spanish side Almeira, who find themselves in the Spanish second tier and sold off to a Saudi Investment Group in the last couple of weeks.

With no experience of catapulting a side to the top end of one of Europe’s major divisions, Southampton are right to be wary of whether he could be the man to deliver success on the South Coast over a long-term basis.

There could also be fears that his passion for boxing could override his football ventures, which has the potential to put Southampton further away from being an established Premier League club than their chances under Dragan Solak.