Summer 2013 Transfer Rumour Thread - Mk3

I haven't met anyone who wants 'Rickie eased out.' Everyone knows he has fewer years left than a 20-yr-old, but he has made a massive contribution to Saints and has more to give.

 

I just hope when his time is up he wants to be a coach here!

 

He could start by coaching JRod on how to take free kicks...he'd kill seagulls at St Marys.

 

If we're due to sign just two more players, and the wide positions and AMC need the most strengthening, then how is Lukaku the perfect fit? He's probably a slight and expensive upgrade on Lambert if you want to directly replace one of our best players, but our problem toward the end of last season wasn't finishing chances, it was creating chances. We have players who can finish well enough, but unless Ramirez and Lallana improve we're still going to be poor at getting the ball to them in dangerous positions.

We need that Le Tiss-esque creativity on the edge of the box that unlocks those hard-to-break-down back lines that consistently frustrate us so much. I doubt I'll have a chance to prove it, but I'm almost certain that even Lukaku wouldn't have a chance to get 20 goals in a season without those improvements being made. He'd actually detract from the playmaking ability of the team because he's not as good at it as Lambert.

You're advocating signing a player who benefited last season from a direct, counter-attacking style of football and assuming he'll do as well in a totally different setup. I don't think he would; or at least I don't think he'd do noticeably better than what we already have. If you sign players purely because they're "better", regardless of whether they suit your style, then you end up with a Shevchenko at Chelsea situation.

 

Or more notably, Torres at Chelsea! I have to say, though I'm struggling to find half-season stats, that my perception was that our chance conversion got significantly worse towards the end of the season. No doubt this coincided with Lambert's drop in form, which is why I agree with the others that a new striker would be a prudent acquisition to take some pressure off him.

We also created fewer chances after Pochettino arrived due to a more defensive outlook in general. Assuming that his tactical style is unlikely to change too much, we either need to buy better defensive players so the team can attack more without fear of leaving inexperienced or inadequate defenders exposed (which perhaps we have done with Lovren and Wanyama), or buy more creative attackers who can do more with fewer options. Obviously both would be ideal but I think we will probably, though it sounds strange, see more chances created with better defenders in the team.

 

I would say it co-incided with Puncheon starting less games as well as Ramirez playing more after his injury/setbacks. On the former Puncheon was dragging defences about and causing problems all over whereas Ramirez was holding on to the ball more than Davis. You also had Rodriguez and Ramirez shooting from distance a lot which wasn't happening earlier in the season.

 

http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-n...224?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Saints after Vydra according to Talksport.

 

He looked the part at that level. Wonder if he could step up?

 

Well on that note of improving defence to improve attack, I think that's exactly what Wanyama does. Schneiderlin and/or Cork will be relieved of defensive duties when he's on the pitch and will be more comfortable getting forward. It makes sense as well to want to bring someone in who can take some of the goalscoring burden off Lambert, but I think it makes sense that that player should also bring something to the team that we don't have yet, and that would be the creativity that we lack too often. Of the players we've been linked with so far, I think Osvaldo is the best example of someone who would bring both goals and creativity to the table. I don't think Lukaku brings much to the creative side of things.

 

Lambert can certainly finish but apart from him I'm not convinced. According to the numbers I've seen Lambert had 94 shots last season and scored 15 goals. In comparison, Rodriguez had 89 shots and only scored 6 goals. So I'd like one to play in the 3 behind the striker and another striker. If we run with our current squad and Lambert got a long term injury I'd be a little concerned about where the goals were going to come from.

 

All this stuff about Lambert leaving is I'm pretty sure a totally made up story. Probably someone asked Adkins about what sort of player he'd like and he mentioned Lambert. Now, all of a sudden its a done deal with actual figures being bandied about.

I'm convinced that there is one guy sitting in a shed somewhere who now writes the entire world news and all the other 'journalists' just reiterate whatever he is says. And, because he is sitting in his shed and doesn't actually get out much, he gets most of it wrong!

 

The Daily Star article about Ramirez, that I linked, shows just how distorted a newspaper can twist things. We know that Ramirez is entirely happy at Saints, but understandably, his agent said that if an offer came in for him they would look at it. And that was all. The Daily Star then talked about Ramirez's heart being in Italy, that he was a want-away-star, etc and more. This is just so much fabrication with little or no basis in truth at all.

 

Fingers crossed that Ryan Dickson has found a new home at Colchester United.

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting Lambert to Reading is a done deal and the figures I've seen being bandied about (£8m!) actually make the story less believable for me.

 

If it's 8m Saints would be a little tempted I'd say. But no way would Reading pay 8m for a aging striker no matter how good he is.

 

Also he was subject to a 7m bid earlier on and that wasn't accepted. I wouldn't want to go higher then that tbh.

 

Goes back to my point the other day about, where the position of striker is concerned, me not caring for us improving our squad as a whole.

Vydra looked good for Watford last season, but we've already got Rickie and Jay and I can't see Vydra blowing those two out of the water.

I want a real top striker, who Rickie and Jay can then supplement. Not three strikers all of roughly the same ability (even though their specific, individual styles and attributes may be different).

A striker to improve the starting XI please, ideally by a strong extent. Not just a striker to provide competition.

 

Using Andy Carroll as the benchmark, surely SLR is worth £20m?

 

Didn't Vydra dominate in the first half of the season and then not score for ages? I think I would want him to have another good season before we became seriously interested. Although it's only Talksport so not actually factual.

 

Using Carroll as a bench mark shouldn't be allowed.