Which other clubs are owned by Chinese investors and how successful are they?

SAINTS are the sixth English club to have welcomed Chinese investment into them in the last two years.

Four of the other five are West Midlands based - Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion and Wolves.

They are all under majority Chinese ownership while China Media Capital, a Chinese state-backed investment conglomerate, own 13 per cent of Manchester City.

Back in December 2015, CMC paid £265m to buy a share of the club owned by the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The main aim of that deal was to capitalise on the growing appetite for football in China.

Since then, the only other Premier League club - prior to Saints - to have Chinese investment are West Brom.

Guangzhou eco-town entrepreneur Guochuan Lai bought the Baggies for around £175million in the summer of 2016.

There has certainly been investment, with three players signed for £10m or more - Nacer Chadli, Jake Livermore and Saints striker Jay Rodriguez.

They might not have been mega signings, but £13m and £14m signings for West Brom were unheard of until Lai's arrival.

Boss Tony Pulis is obviously happy with Lai's ownership, as he signed a new contract extension only last week.

Globally, Lai has taken steps to boost Albion's global brand - a new partnership with Werder Bremen of the Bundesliga as well as the emergence of six ‘West Bromwich Albion’ football towns in China.

Aston Villa were also taken over by a Chinese company, the Recon Group, in the summer of 2016.

It was headed up by Dr Tony Xia, who immediately sanctioned a £25m spending spree for new manager Roberto Di Matteo.

The Italian was sacked shortly after a poor start to the season, while replacement Steve Bruce was handed £11m more in January to bring in Brentford striker Scott Hogan and Nottingham Forest's Henri Lansbury.

Though there have been no hugely expensive signings this summer, Villa did persuade John Terry to sign for them - and he wouldn't have been cheap.

Wolves were also taken over in the summer of 2016 by Chinese company Fosun International for a deal worth around £45m.

Fosun co-owner Guo Guangchang quickly brought in a new high profile manager, Walter Zenga - then sacked him a few months later.

Guangchang is obviously not a patient man as Zenga's replacement, Paul Lambert, was also dispensed with at the end of 2016/17.

Portuguese coach Nuno Espirito Santo, a former Porto boss, was brought in and given a healthy budget.

Santo went straight back to Porto and made youngster Ruben Neves, who cost around £16m, the most expensive player in Championship history.

Saints fans could well see him in action in next Wednesday's League Cup second round tie at St Mary's.

Last autumn, a fourth Midlands club - Birmingham - were taken over by businessman Paul Suen of Trillion Trophy Asia.

The new owners quickly sacked boss Gary Rowett, with the Blues on the outskirts of the Championship play-off zone, and replaced him with Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola.

The move was a total flop and Zola was replaced by renowned managerial firefighter Harry Redknapp with three games left and relegation looking increasingly likely.