Watched them a least a couple times this season that I can remember, including an Feyenoord-Ajax match where he scored. Largely came away with the impression that he was a bog standard big striker; won a tonne of headers, decent linkup play, good shot on him if he had the space. Plenty competent enough to be the main man in the Eredivisie, but I didn't come away awed by his performances...it was a bit man-against-boys (which, given the age of many players in the Dutch league, isn't far off), which is hard to translate to a league where the defenders are strapping piles of mobile muscle.
Lads & lasses....Some clubs in the past have spent mega bucks on players and they have not come off. (£60 mil for a forward who eventually transferred to Wet Spam for half that fee) We don't know if Pelle will make the grade should he sign...but until he does and he plays, shouldn't we get behind him and give all the encouragement we can? Just give him the benefit of the doubt.....Our main striker is going to be injured for a while. So the first few months we are going to be relying on others for the goals. So far everyone linked to us from Holland at least seem to be able to score.....although it is excepted in a lesser standing of a league perhaps. Anyone coming into Saints at this difficult time should be given the benefit of any doubt about their ability...and if anything RK has to take the heat if things don't work out. It will be his team and choices after all. So in truth it is over to you Ronald lets see what your made of.........!!!
I'm willing to accept that Koeman knows more about Pelle than we do. An Italian striker...what can go wrong Be glad to get a signing under our belt.
do people not overestimate the defensive quality of this division during the transfer windows though? every time we're linked with a defender who played in it it's underwhelming because they are all hilariously error prone. Marshall conceded nearly 20 more goals the season just past than Kelvin did in his horror show season and the goals scored are off the charts near the top.
Probably because there's a slight difference between the quality of Agüero and Van Persie to Pelle and Van Wolfswinkel..
as a player who never scored more than about 1 in 2 in netherlands and portugal I don't know why anyone would have expected RVW to succeed anyway.
So you think Pelle will be as awful as Van Wolfswinkel before he has even signed let alone kick a ball? C'mon. And why even mention the other 2? Thet're hardly going to be bought by anyone for under £10m are they.
because I mentioned that the top clubs have been scoring off the charts. thing is aguero and RVP haven't scored remarkable numbers of goals. Sturridge and Suarez, yes. The rest of liverpool were slackers.
I see, fair enough. Anyway, i willing to give this guy Pelle a chance. I'm sure he will want to suceed here and Koeman obviously thinks he can do a job for us so i'm happy enough if he signs.
Sure, but in the PL you generally need to force those mistakes. Defenders panic when forced to make quick decisions with attacking players making runs, but they make very few (some, but not many) mistakes if you're lumping crosses into the box at the head of a modestly-mobile striker. Now, if we have a bunch of dynamic attacking players who can do the work of panicking defenders and creating space for Pelle, they might create enough chances for him to get a good goals total, but they'd probably do likewise for a striker who could also do some of that work themselves.
I don't think we a) can afford to get a sure thing jack of all trades b) have time to risk a gamble on finding one. I think this transfer makes sense as a stop-gap even if it isn't destined to be the long term solution. at €8m that wouldn't be a disaster either. From what i've seen he's not just a head to lump things to either. He holds the ball up well on the ground. I think it can work, but then I'm very much a lay man. p.s. i'll consider it a success if we get 10-15 goals from him.
Not as pessimistic as some of you. Partly because I just don't think any of us know enough about Pelle to say one way or the other I suppose. I like the fact that he's a big, physical guy. If there's one thing you always take with you across leagues it's size and strength. It's a simple game that translates well. Plus, I felt we could have used a physical presence in the box (TWSS) at times last year. Just because you have a big dude upfront doesn't mean you HAVE to play long balls either. It's another tool to have to break down teams, which is always good. We still have Rodriguez, and I don't mind a big guy/fast guy pairing. Now, if Pelle is the only guy we bring in and we're expecting him to be a complete striker and bang in 20 goals by himself, then yeah I have deep misgivings. But if we get him in for 8m and also bring in another player to complement him or as another option it seems like an alright buy. I think there's a good chance he's better than Gallagher, and of course Osvaldo ended up being a zero or less than zero. There is a chance even that we can offload Osvaldo for the same money as we pay for Pelle. So if you look at it through the lens of worst case scenario Pelle ends up being a Gallagher/Osvaldo replacement rather than a Lambert replacement, then it seems okay to me.
As I've said before, Pelle could be the fabled 'Plan B' that we so lacked and bemoaned the lack of last year. He could just be being brought in as a squad player with that in mind. We just don't know at this stage.
Not at all. I think he'll be alright in fairness. If he gets 10 or 12 goals that'd be a success for me, as long as there's more goals from midfield.
Dutch football magazine VI says the deal is basically done between Pelle and Southampton. They claim that Feyenoord are asking 8 million euros (6.4 mil pounds) for the Italian striker.
