Apart from the obvious fact that we got 12 mil rising to 15 mil for Chamberlain, and ignoring the fact that he clearly wanted to leave, would you rather have Chamberlain or Chaplow if current form was the only criteria. Chaplow is playing out of his skin at the moment and clearly £50k for him was some bargain, how does he compare with Chamberlain though. Chaplow does seem to give both a solid look to the midfield as well as providing a goal threat. Chamberlain is supposed to be on the verge of a full England call up! What do you think ?
Chamberlain has the potential to be a far greater player than Chaplow. I like Chaplow and his good honest work rate, but he will never have the same pace and acceleration.
Chamberlain was a genuis of a player, and he had pace and a cracking shot. He'll make it at the very top, mark my words.
Chamberlain would have been a fantastic asset for us this season, Chaplow been outstanding but AOC for me.
On the subject, it's not really a fair comparison. We should be comparing Steve De Ridder to OXO. It's much closer then. Personally, I never thought I'd say this, but I like the team as it is, and being £12M to 15M richer.
We're certainly not feeling the effects of losing him. We didn't play with him for the majority of the run-in and we have a team with enough quality to cope with losing a player of his calibre. Having said all this, just think how freaking awesome we would be if we still had Chambo...
Whilst Chaplow is undoubtably on great form (along with Guly), I'm certain that Chamberlain will become a top, top player. And you're never not going to want top, top players at your club.
Chamberlain has greater potential, but I love my team as it is. Chaplow is playing fantastically at the moment. Hope he keeps it up, as he faded last year.
Dont think you can make to many comparisons here one is a kid just starting out with the potential to in time make his mark internationally the other a now quite seasoned player at championship level with some premier experiance which i think at this moment in time is proving valuable to our ambitions.Both are great players and i only wish they were both in our squad
Whoever wants to give everything to the cause...Oxo didn't, he is not a Saints player so no choice really. The argument had as much validity of choosing between Chappers and Messi...in that case I might be persuaded to go for Lionel! ;-)
I can see it now on the Pompey/Bournemouth/Brighton/whoever boards: "Those Southampton fans are so arrogant they reckon Messi wouldn't even get on their bench!" Well he might have to spend some time playing in the U21's to get used to our unique style first, anyway...
