A deal that flew under the radar, but champions league winning academy player ryan Bertrand is no longer a chelsea player. best of luck ryan, proud to have had such a player and professional on our books!
Didn't expect that this window but fair play to the lad, played brilliantly and earned himself a move as a first team regular to an up and coming side.
Great for us (Saints). He's been far better than any of us thought he'd be. Good deal for both clubs and Bertrand has finally found somewhere to settle down.
Exactly that. Selling Shaw to those desperate wallys up North and getting Bertrand for a fraction of the price has been great business.
Cheer ryan you have been a great servant. No moaning just a shame you never really got a chance with us
Indeed. Them selling Fatty Bon Batty Shaw for nearly £30m was right up there with us selling Luiz for £50 odd million in terms of transfer ingenuity.
In his CL winning role he was immense, he really did stand up and was counted. Think Southampton have got a very very good player and a great club man for a decent price.
Not a bad fee at all for him. I was a keen supporter of his when he played for us. All the best to him. Hope he makes the England squad soon.
I think many of us did. There does seem to be some change in Joses' mindset against kids though.Young Zouma has been a big success in his limited appearances, let's hope he gets more game time as rotating player. Giving one kid a chance in a few consecutive games can really bring them on. Playing too many will often end up as did the Bradford game. Blending them in slowly but surely can only be a good thing for them and the Club. I for one hope Jose continues this with Loftus Cheek, Ake (and his cousin Abe) and the others who are now with the 1st team squad.
That`s the way to do it though, bring them into a confident team one at a time for a few games. There is less pressure on them to perform in a winning team and they are less of a disruption on that team.
Does Zouma really count though? Yes he is young but this is a guy with a couple of seasons in a first team under his belt during his time in France and Jose bought him rather than promoting him through the youth set up. This is still a 10 million pound player. Same as when Oscar started playing for us. Yes he was young but he cost about 20 million! I think we all want to see an actually academy developed player make the first team regularly. I'm still amazed that player wasn't Josh or Kakuta (I know we still bought him). Both looked great in the games they played for us yet going out on loan stunted their development. Anyone who witnessed Josh's performance in the league cup v Newcastle (when we were a man down as well) will tell you what a prospect he was. So assured on the ball, great passer, not dissimilar to Fabregas really.
