I was thinking the same thing about Antonio. I was also thinking back on some past players who I thought would be lighting up their leagues having left Southampton after a short spell. It's quite sad really; Andrew Davies, Phil Ifill, Antonio to name a few. I thought those guys would be on to great things!
I liked Antonio. He provided something very different to Lallana and Puncheon. he was hit and miss at the best of times, but he was also a confidence player who only thrived when he was valued. He was unplayable at times though. It's a shamr his promising career hasn't developed.
I like to see Papa Waigo come back, just to give us a wave from the stands. I bet he'd get a big cheer. JPT goalscorer, after all, and he played very well indeed, that day.
I would love to see Papa Waigo come back. He loved being at St Marys and wanted to stay as far as I can remember. Currently playing for the Serie B side Ascoli. Never seen a more enthusiastic player. Always remember him celebrating the JPT like he'd just won the Champions League! (which is how i felt at the time)
michial antiono never came because he had a cause in his contract where reading could extent it by another year so the did that we asked how much they said 1mil too high so we couldn't get him the played him for like 5 league games and gave him an extension he must of though great i am playing championship foootie so he signed then the dropped him and sent on loan to colchester too get more experince. that is the story
Antonio was not good enough for us long term and the club sussed this out early doors i think. Us great Saints fans were all desperate for him to do well and nurture another gem but the fact was he was a decent LG1 player at best. He made a big mistake...we didn't. Good Luck to him though.
We are top of the championship and discussing a mid table league one player who gets subbed off for not making an impact??? Some of you have no class. Not good enough for us, end of.
Correct..we probably considered him at the time because we were in L1. We are now looking up and Nigel looks for different things in a player.
But not the question posed. Did Antonio make a mistake (assuming he had a choice) and the answer is clearly yes. Did we make a mistake not pursuing him? No. I liked him and loved his Wembley performance, but who could he displace in the current side? Lee Holmes is a classier player and he can't get on the bench. Seemed a nice guy, and would love to see him prove Reading wrong, but it won't happen at SMS. (Fast forward to FA Cup Jan 2012: Saints 1 Colchester 3 (Antonio hat trick) !!)
At least a dozen posters have answered this question, and hardly anyone has actually read the answer from the previous poster who got it right. I would debate with you that Antonio made a mistake. So would those other posters, I'm sure, as he had no say in the matter. Reading retained him for another year [as a clause in his contract allowed them to] in order to build up his value. It didn't match ours and we went our separate ways. IMO, he would have progressed, as a player, with us. His very great loss. Did he make a mistake..? No, Reading did on his behalf. Did Saints make a mistake not getting him..? No, we replaced him.
