"There is a rumour" - Simon Jordan drops Southampton FC sale claim | OneFootball

The Saints' current owners have been in charge since 2022.

Simon Jordan has revealed that there are whispers in the footballing world about Southampton's owners wanting to sell the club.

The former Crystal Palace chief has heard a rumour on the grape vine that the Saints owners, Sport Republic, may be looking to move on from the club, just over three years on from when they bought their majority share in the club from Gao Jisheng.

This season marked the second time in three seasons that Southampton have been relegated from the Premier League. All the hopes and dreams that were built up at St Mary's during Russell Martin's time in charge, while they were in the Championship, quickly evaporated once they made it back to the top flight this summer, when it became clear pretty quickly that the Saints weren't going to be able to survive.

The highs and lows felt by supporters across the most recent trio of campaigns are bound to have taken a toll on them, and they may have affected the owners' desires to stick around and back the club too.

Simon Jordan makes intriguing Southampton sale claim

According to Jordan, who now works for talkSPORT alongside Jim White, there is speculation about how much longer Sport Republic are looking to stick around on the south coast for.

"On the basis of performances this season, Ipswich haven't got any more stability than Southampton," said the ex-Palace chairman.

"There is a rumour going around that Southampton are up for sale but the fact of the matter is that they have all gone down with no great credit."

The Daily Echo have further stated that they have also heard similar murmurs, and that the figure that Sport Republic apparently wanted was £125 million. However, this was denied by people at the club that they spoke to.

Dragan Solak, the group who owns the Saints' lead investor, did state in January that he felt "at home" in Southampton and that he was striving to make the club better. He took over the chairman position at St Mary's around the same time as his aforementioned quotes, after his Sport Republic co-owner, Henrik Kraft, stepped down in the midst of poor performances.

Jisheng sold the club to them for £100 million, according to reports, which makes the rumoured price tag feel a little bit short of what would be expected.

Sport Republic selling up would add more uncertainty to what is already an unsure future at St Mary's

The Saints are going to have to rebuild things again this summer, with the appointment of a new manager being the priority on their to-do list. They have most recently been linked with Minnesota United head coach, and former Chelsea and Manchester United coach, Eric Ramsay, as per talkSPORT, as well as a host of other potential candidates.

Even though the revolving door of the three relegated and promoted sides from the Premier League and Championship has kept turning, with Ipswich Town and Leicester City coming down with the Saints, who will be replaced by Leeds United, Burnley and one other team, asking a new manager to come in and get this team challenging for promotion within one season, again, may turn out to be a tough ask.

Add to that the turbulence that can come with a change of ownership and the Saints may be sent down a very rocky path come the start of next season.