I find it hard to care whether his agent is putting stories in the papers or not. It really makes very little difference. If he comes back this season it'll help us and if he doesn't we'll cope. If the agent kids another team into offering big money for a crocked player so much the better.
Whilst we love Ronald for his openness, I think he's perfectly capable of playing a few mind games through the media. The comment about jay possibly being out for the entire season may have been a slight hint or spur to get him going. Who knows..? I'd heard from my usually reliable little friend who lives in Staplewood [I'm not saying any more than that but I'm not uninformed] as recently as last month that he'd be ready by the end of February. Then Ronald came out with his end of season comment, so I was thrown by it. Beefy is seeing him on crutches, I mean what next..?
The JRod situation I think is a very tricky one- I'm not sure i'd be in rush to sign him up, as he may never be the same player as he was. Seems silly to put him on a new four year contract unless we are sure he will be effective. Having said that, it might also be hard to get a good fee for him this summer, as other clubs would be wary as well. I think the solution would be a one year extension (not that he'd be too keen on that...), or try to get him on the field and in the shop window. Or maybe Koeman knows the injury is bad, and wants to leave out so that a club might take a punt on him next season and give us a reasonable fee. Anyway, I never rated him that much - always thought he was too wasteful in front of goal.
Sorry to be rude but on this comment your name fits Jay joined us a s a raw 22 year old. He got lots of stick and disbelievers on this very forum at that time, however I said back then he was going to be a quality player. He took that first season to adapt to a new club, new life, new position and a new level of football. I said from the start he was going to be very good; I could see it. Last season he started to improve his finishing evidenced by the 17 goals. He still was missing chances, but he was still young and improving. If he recovers from injury he will become one hell of a player - it is why people want him. If you "never rated him much anyway" that says more about your ability to see a talented footballer than it does his ability as a talented footballer.
At the time we lost Jay to injury, he was able to create goals from difficult angles and given the ball his sprint speed was hard for defenders to deal with. We need that player back. There are a few questions really 1) will he be the same 2) if he is, how long will it take for him to get there and (one for him) 3) will he be able to recreate that in a different team. The last question is valid whether he stays or goes...he had a rapport with Adam and Rickie playing in the Saints way...can he recreate that?
I always have said and seen Jay as the man down the middle later in his career... maybe only 2/3 years time. If he stays, we won't need a back-up to Pelle, but may find Pelle is back-up to Jayrod.
Just referring back to a previous post about JayRod's finishing. I think most people are aware that JR used to need a fair few chances occasionally, to get a goal, but he tightened up that requirement remarkably, halfway through last season, when he really started popping them in for fun. Strikes against Newcastle and Fulham away were illustrative of that form he was in. Then a couple of months later he went and got his injury. It was a real shame. On the bright side, we have Graziano, and if JR hadn't got himself injured, I doubt whether that transfer would have happened. It'll be great to have both, if that scenario ever happens.
He banged in a goal every other game in the season up to his injury. That's a great scoring rate, similar to Austin and Kane this year. I don't hear anything but plaudits for them. He also has that indefinable ability to scare opponents. While he looks quite slim, his strength is shown by the fact that he'd carry the ball through challenges on a regular basis. When everyone was getting on his back, I used to tell Onionman Jr that once he scored a few he'd be unstoppable. Unusually for me, I was right. Vin
I tend to think that the longer he's out, the better we remember him being. Saint Muppet and other critics have a point - he was far from the finished article, and while he did begin to have a serious impact bursting into the box to get on the end of Rickie's lay-offs, his conversion rate didn't exactly put him in the Robin Van Persie category. It would be great to see him running onto Pelle's flick-ons, but for a player who relied so much on pace, and was still a work in progress, you'd have to be very worried about the impact of a long term injury on his future.
He tends to go through patches of red hot form - there's been quite a few times where he gets 3 goals in 3 games - think one time he got 5 in 4
This is the season I think he would really have taken off. Shame. Though doubt he'd still be here had he not got injured.
Can't be certain of that. The board stared Morgan down and may have stared JRod down (if they considered him essential).
My posts don't say he was the finished article Archers, they say I could see he was going to be.... Saint Muppet said he didn't rate him much.
If it were not for the injury, he would have gone to Brazil. He may have started slowly, 'ol one-goal, but he was in a fine vein of form. Trouble is, we have no idea how good he will be on his return. But I don't question how good he was and could, potentially, be again.
Excellent post.....always felt he was more effective in (away) games when he had space to run into behind defences....not so much, normally at SMS when teams shut up shop.
I want him to do well, I really do - and I think he had great pace and a good footballing brain. He was also excellent for Poch's pressing games because he had a great engine. And granted, he was improving. (Yes - I'm using past tense and hope I'm wrong!) But we dominated teams, home and away, last year - but lacked the clinical edge of the teams above us in the final third. Rodriquez needed more composure in front of goal. Maybe his finishing sticks in my mind because of the hole in the wall above my TV. I think Rodriguez owes me at least two remotes caused by his skied goal efforts. There are too many variables with him - and if we can get a good fee for him this summer - I think we should take the money and run.
Assuming he recovers, the decision to stay should rest solely on his desire to. We don't need him, he is not essential to our success, so if he's not with us...sell him. If he wants to stay, then we have a good striker without scouring the world and paying a largish fee, but I only want the ones who want to stay. This is what supporting a big team feels like
The only variables are: 1. Will he recover from the injury 2. Does he want to stay. The two things above are the only concerns. As Fran says, if he doesn't want to be here once he recovers, then get as much as we can, but if he recovers, I really hope he wants to stay and he'll prove the doubters wrong (assuming recovered from injury). I still find it strange that someone who says "has a good footballing brain," "great pace," "a great engine" and "he was improving" about a player who scored 17 goals in 80% of his second Premier League season, 'Doesn't really rate him' .... I think the hole in your wall is affecting your judgment too much
