Summer 2013 Transfer Rumour Thread

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- Doing The Lambert Walk said:
Yep, because Gastón asked for us to spend that on him.

I've been speaking about this on Twitter.

I basically said that I think we'd come to regret the decision to sell, should it happen.

At current, our set-up does not play to Gastón's assets. Lambert, who is slow by all accounts and plays with his back to goal, does not work with the likes of Gastón and Lallana flicking those threaded balls in behind. He may anticipate them occasionally, but more often that not he can't make it. As recent as this weekend, we had multiple chances to hit Spurs on the break, but as a unit we were too slow and there were occasions when Lambert took all the pace and sting out of our attacks.

Now I love Rickie as much as the next Saints fan, but he's not the ideal player for the situation at current. He's a popular character and rightly so, but we need to be careful with regard to looking at how to continue our progression at the same time. I'm not calling for Lambert to be left by the wayside, but as said, at current the formation and the way in which we attack is occasionally hampered and stalled.

Until we introduce more quality and mobility into the final third, we won't see the best of Gastón. He needs more time to settle anyway, in my opinion, and has shown some real flashes of brilliance - beyond that of any attacking player that we currently have at the club.

We need to add the necessary depth to the squad, to supplement the formation and promote this ethos that Pochettino seems to want to introduce.

But first, safety.
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I completely agree about Lambert. He's been fantastic for us for a long time and is unquestionably good enough for the Premier League but I don't necessarily think he suits Pochettino's style of play, at least not as the spearhead of the attack. Rickie got 10 goals in 18 league games under Adkins but has only scored in 4 in 14 under Pochettino, with 2 of those coming from free kicks. I actually think he might be more suited to playing in the middle of the 3 in a 4-2-3-1, with the 1 being a striker with more pace.
 
Puck said:
I completely agree about Lambert. He's been fantastic for us for a long time and is unquestionably good enough for the Premier League but I don't necessarily think he suits Pochettino's style of play, at least not as the spearhead of the attack. Rickie got 10 goals in 18 league games under Adkins but has only scored in 4 in 14 under Pochettino, with 2 of those coming from free kicks. I actually think he might be more suited to playing in the middle of the 3 in a 4-2-3-1, with the 1 being a striker with more pace.
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I recall we did this earlier in the season a couple of times, Rodriguez up front and Lambert in the hole. Worked pretty well if I remember correctly. Lambert's probably the best passer in the team, played some great through balls for Jay Rod to chase.
 
If we sold Ramirez in the summer, then he'll end up going to a top Italian side and play amazing, knowing our luck! One more season and he'll be sold, either through outgrowing the team or being surplus to requirements. Either way, we should get a profit on him.
 
pass the football said:
I recall we did this earlier in the season a couple of times, Rodriguez up front and Lambert in the hole. Worked pretty well if I remember correctly. Lambert's probably the best passer in the team, played some great through balls for Jay Rod to chase.
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Yes, perhaps. Although I think we'd need at least one other striker if we moved Rickie back, as well as a couple of wingers with an eye for goal.

I suspect Lukaku will be playing for Chelsea next year.
 
Interesting point raised by fatletiss....how would we view Ramirez if he cost a couple of mill. Probably as a promising young player...and fans would be calling for him to be given more of a chance. I think the time to judge him is next season after a full preseason with Mauricio.
 
fran-MLs little camera said:
Interesting point raised by fatletiss....how would we view Ramirez if he cost a couple of mill. Probably as a promising young player...and fans would be calling for him to be given more of a chance. I think the time to judge him is next season after a full preseason with Mauricio.
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Two words spring to mind: Robert Pires.

He was shocking in his first season, yet tunred out to be an intergral part of Les Invincibles
 
He's Japanese, so even if he was crap we'd sign him, Asia conspiracy etc.

However, I do like him a lot - and Hiroshi Kiyotake if we're going that route.
 
Puck said:
I completely agree about Lambert. He's been fantastic for us for a long time and is unquestionably good enough for the Premier League but I don't necessarily think he suits Pochettino's style of play, at least not as the spearhead of the attack. Rickie got 10 goals in 18 league games under Adkins but has only scored in 4 in 14 under Pochettino, with 2 of those coming from free kicks. I actually think he might be more suited to playing in the middle of the 3 in a 4-2-3-1, with the 1 being a striker with more pace.
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The problem is that he's simultaneously our only consistent finisher and creator, we rely on him to do so much, so there's one game where he may focus on one of those aspects but that leaves us completely devoid of the other. Games where he is always dropping deep to feed other players we lack a clinical edge on the end of our play, and games where he sticks up top we have no final ball and he is isolated. This is typified by the fact that he is seemingly our only player capable of whipping in a good cross from a set-piece, but also our best header of the ball. He's had the second least shots of any player in the top 20 of goals scored in the league this season after Le Fondre, and he's one of the only free-kick takers in that list too, which probably accounts for 20% of his shots. He's had the second most key passes (a pass to a teammate that lead to a shot) and completed throughballs of any striker in the league after Suarez. And all this from a player with a team 14th in the table.

I think next year we need to refine his role, we need to get him some help so that someone else can ease the workload on one of those aspects, basically we either need a couple of finishers (This could easily be JRod, Ramirez or Lallana if they just got more clinical and composed in front of goal) or we need to service Lambert better so he can not have to worry about dropping to supply others and just fire his way to 20+ goals! As it is he is stuck in between the two and it is too much to ask for him to consistently provide both, and it often ends up with neither!
 
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