HITMANBRACED FOR A BRITT OF FLAK AT FOREST
Bilic backing for Sullivan and Gold.. then tells Saints: Foreign takeovers carry no guarantees PELLE’S GREAT WALL OF CHINA
SLAVEN BILIC has claimed British owners are best – and warned Southampton that not every takeover is “like Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain.”
MAURICIO PELLEGRINO prays Saints’ new Chinese owners wrap a shield around the club’s best players to repel raiders.
Billionaire Jisheng Gao and daughter Nelly this week paid former owner Katharina Liebherr £210million for an 80 per cent stake in Southampton. Adam Lallana, Sadio Mane and Victor Wanyama are among top stars sold in recent transfer windows.
And now Saints face a battle to keep wantaway captain Virgil van Dijk.
Boss Pellegrino (right) said: “Hopefully the new owners can achieve the same progress for the club as the Liebherr family did in the past. In the last six years the progress was really good.
“In the first meeting I had with the board they told me they want to keep the best players. They want to progress and the idea in the club was to keep the best players.
“Hopefully the new owners have the same idea. At the beginning nothing will change.” BRITT ASSOMBALONGA has told Forest fans he was right to quit the club.
The Middlesbrough striker says it was time to test himself elsewhere after becoming a goal-scoring favourite at the City Ground.
Assombalonga (above) got off the mark with a double for Boro in midweek – but knows he is in for a rough reception on his return to Forest.
He got 30 goals in 65 appearances before becoming Boro’s biggest buy at £15million this summer.
He said: “I don’t think the reception will be pleasant! I have moved to another Championship club, it’s bound to be a love-hate relationship now.
“I just felt it was the right time to move on and test myself somewhere else.
“It will be strange going back so soon to play in front of the Forest fans and against the team I was part of. I know I did reasonably well there, but I probably know what is going to happen when I go on to the pitch wearing a different shirt.”
Patrick Bamford, Ashley Fletcher, Rudy Gestede and Adama Traore add to Boro’s fire-power and Assombalonga said: “We are all going to really go hard to attack this Championship.
“With all the players we have got, not just the forwards, we have a strong core and I think we will do well.
“It’s a blessing to have so much attacking quality on the pitch at the same time, never mind the squad.”