It's probably been mentioned but Chaz's signing will be a big boost to Jay as well. They had a great striking partnership at Burnley with them scoring nearly 40 goals between them in the 2011/12 season.
Martin Samuel quoted in the "i" saying "at a bargain £4m he may only be cover at Southampton...(if he) gets among the goals, it will make those clubs who rejected him in the summer look more than a little daft. Newcastle to name but one" Didn't QPR reject offers of 12m plus from "those" clubs. Seems to suggest bizarrely Austin himself might rue being considered (bizarrely by Samuel) a £4m squad player at Saints when he could have been a £15m hero in the North East. Perhaps he should deduce the kind of wages Austin will be on as well and his wish to play in our neck of the woods.
I doubt we guaranteed Austin a spot or anything like that, but he would not sign to be a squad player. Obviously he has to have confidence in his abilities but I'm sure he was told he will get every opportunity to show his stuff. And why not? It's not like that would be a lie. We needed a striker. QPR took a gamble on Austin denying those bids. It made sense as they wanted to be in the title chase. Unfortunately, it did not work out. Austin got hurt, which both impacted their chances and lowered his value. Austin would not sign on to a team in a relegation fight right now and risk ending up in Championship all over again, so QPR got 4m instead of nothing. Austin could have maybe forced his way out, but he was smart not to. Not when he could have his pick of clubs in a year. He gambled on himself and it appears he won. Newcastle, etc. could only have gotten him for 15m in the summer. And 15m is much different than 4m. We didn't meet QPT's price either. So they have no real reason for regret if they are doing things properly. We did our homework and played it right and everything worked out so we were in the perfect position to swoop in. At the same time, I am sure we were keeping tabs on many players just in case. Probably there is some mystery player out there who we wanted and thought we might get a chance at, but who now looks unlikely. Cast the net far and wide, stay patient, and you will always have options. True for us and true for Austin.
Can't follow Samuel's reasoning that if Newcastle paid 15 million he would get more game time than he will get at only 4 million for us. We're pleased to get him so cheaply, but he will be one of our strikers and will get games....if he scores, he will play more. Koeman said that Austin was our main target this window and then (interestingly) he said that it will give us a chance to bed him in before the summer. I took that to mean get him settled before we make decisions regarding ins and outs during the summer window.
CA: 'People saying 'Is he gonna score? Is it gonna happen? Is he good business for Southampton? etcetera etcetera' - Well yeah, I've showed that today.' Looking forward to that goal against the Hammers...
I think he is desperately needing to go for a wee or something there and having to keep crossing his knees. Very level headed. I bet he'll get home and feel ****ing great tonight
Chaz will be the new Rickie Lambert, I'm certain of it. He will be a talismanic figure whose goals will take us to a new level.
Hope it's true, but far too early to mention in same breath as the sainted SRL.....no where near a knighthood yet.
Scores at OT first time out? I saw Rickie's debut goal against Northampton. Charlie's must be worth an OBE at least (actually all royalist ****e!)
He stands at 6'2" Charlie, Charlie He'll take us to the champions league Charlie, Charlie He gets the ball he takes the piss, he wears the shirt of Ben Reeves Charlie Austin, southamptons goal machine
