The final pundits are falling into line. Garth Crooks has just admitted that Mauricio has pushed Saints on since Nigel's tenure.
My favourite quote from a Reading forum: "Didn't think Southampton were as good as last season when we played them. " After we have 6 points off them this season, compared to 1 last...
It never ceases to amaze me how people can watch the same event(s) and develop such diametrically opposed opinions. Ramirez is unquestionably a superb player and I certainly don't imagine that he'll get worse! Great win, great all round performance and I'd like to tip my hat to Mr S Davis who was absolute mustard today.
Is there any chance we might just enjoy this result rather than continue on with this to-ing and fro-ing about Ramirez. Get your own thread, This is the match thread.
I'm not saying it is a risk. I am questioning the constant assumption that he needs time to settle and that he WILL come good. How long does he have to settle, improve, come good? How long does a Cortese Saints have to get to the top 6 and can any player even Lallana or Lambert afford to have a poor spell? Forget the price tag and wages. Assess the player as he stands at the mo. Ramirez is a squad player at best at the moment. I wouldn't say sell him, just that he shouldn't be starting games on form. I think he will be benched next game with Jay, Rickie, Davis and Lallana as the front 4.
Great win, great day. Beat my sister at monopoly last night, saints beat reading and I jus won the family grand national sweepstake... £15 to the winner!
Think this sums up Gaston's performance today quite well? He's obviously a good player, that will hopefully come good for us in the future, but today he was poor and yet to justify his transfer fee? Thought we looked a much better unit when Adam came on?
Good. Of course not. I just wrote that to deflect the conversation from errors in players back to concentrating on the good things that happened today.
I find it odd that people can say Ramirez is crap and then suggest another team might be prepared to pay £20m for him. While I agree that Ramirez hasn't lived up to his price tag yet and there is obviously a limit to how long you give him to adjust he's had less than a season here so it's too early for people to be saying he should be moved on. If he hasn't adjusted this time next year then his critics may be right. A little stat to put things in perspective. Ramirez has so far scored 4 goals in 22 (I think) league appearances for us. By way of comparison, Robert Pires scored 4 goals in 29 games in his first season and received a fair bit of criticism for his performances. I don't think anyone would now argue that Arsenal should have sold him.
My last bit on this cos I don't want to annoy people (any more than I may already have) but when Pires, Henry et al were given time the Prem was a much different beast and big sides were much much better than those outside of the top 6. These days noone can afford to wait.
Exactly. Henry the same as I've been saying (ad nauseum). It's also not *his* price-tag, it's what WE in combination with our scouts were prepared to pay for him.
You're right, he's not crap but just hasn't justified his price tag yet. Torres wasn't having a great season with Liverpool and then gets bought for £50 million because he'd shown previously what he could do. I never saw Ramirez play before we signed him, but he must have been good for us to bid £12 million for him and for lots of big clubs to show interest.
What is up with this "We can't afford to wait?" attitude? Of course we can. Nearly all of our signings this offseason were for young players not yet in their primes. That was a risky manuever, but which now appears to be paying off. Many of those players didn't start off so well. Ramirez just happens to be behind the pace due to injury and also I think, because his is a position that requires more gelling than say, fullback. We waited quite a long time on Puncheon. We are waiting on Forren. We took a shot at Mayuka and we're waiting on him as well and he's done a lot less than Ramirez. We are playing JWP, who definitely isn't as good as Ramirez (yet). NC and MP have stated our goal is to bring players into the team from the academy. So not only are we more than willing to wait a season, I'd argue we have no problem waiting 5 or maybe even 10 seasons on an individual player.
