I think they're making a fuss of Sharp because there was a certain amount of bad feeling last year among some fans that he wasn't allowed to train with the first team in pre-season. It also plays into the PR game that's going on and slightly undermines the "Why shouldn't Lallana/Shaw/Lambert/Lovren want to leave? The club didn't show any loyalty when they moved on from Hammond/Guly/Barnard/Chaplow/Sharp" argument.
Well I hope so. Not sure that's clear though; it's Ben one pre-season kick about so far. I am sure he's been briefed in the squad but I would be expecting him moved on again soon; maybe another loan.
I think that people are missing the point here. Sharp has a contract with Saints. He has no obligation to tear that up and since there seem to be no takers to offer him a better one, he is our player. As such we can either say sod off home and sit on your butt or we can get him training in the hope that someone comes in for him. The chances of him playing for Saints in the Premier league are probably limited to a scenario where all our other strikers go down with gastroenteritis, but that is the only option.
I don't think many have missed that point Channon, just amazed that one or two suggest we should give him a go in the Prem.
Who's arguing any of that? Nobody's saying he should terminate his contract, just that he shouldn't be in our plans.
Well he is in our plans to the extent that he has a contract with us, in much the same way that Forte did. If he were to massively impress in pre-season then he might be our 4th choice striker but only since we are paying his wages. That's hardly "plans"
On a serious note, I asked Swanie when Freddy Adu and Hamdi Salihi were signing and he denied it was ever him or that he'd ever posted. So (thanks to someone on here), I found his old 606 profile with the same name, employer and DoB as his Twitter profile. Pretty odd guy, although I guess it's pretty embarrassing for him in hindsight. I remember when Sibley et al mocked him publicly.
Semantics Channon. If he was to massively impress, then we'd be two or three levels behind where we should be in terms of striker. One striker has gone, one is long term injured and one is leaving. We need that level if striker for those three and we've signed one. Sharp should not be considered an option as he's not good enough for our progression.
In truth it is unlikely that he will feature in the premier league. However RK may want to have a look at all the talent we have at St Mary's. Including those discarded by other managers. Judging by the youngsters he played yesterday that seems to be what he is doing....... Incidentally....can anyone advise why Boruc wasn't there yesterday.....Have I missed a departure?
OK. Until now, I've said he's probably not good enough but.... I think Sharp is / was a talented footballer and was worth a shot in the Premier League. But his personal circumstances rightly had him focusing on non football related priorities for a couple of years. Maybe, just maybe, his head is back in the game and Koeman is going to give him a full pre season, get him up to fitness and assess what contribution he can make. I think we should forget what has happened in the past and judge him solely on how he performs from here on in. He is still only 28 - a bit younger than Pelle and a scoring record fairly comparable given that Pelle was in Eredivisie and Sharp was in the Championship when he had a decent score rate (1 in 2). Even better with Sc**thorpe when they were promoted to the Championship. His career has very much been up and down over the years (e.g poor at Sheffield Utd) so I think he is one of those players who will respond to the right manager. Look at the training pictures over the last few days and you will see he is not there just to make up the numbers. You can see Koeman studying him quite hard.
Whilst it's unlikely Sharp will ever play for us in the Prem, from Saints point of view, would they rather bring him up to match fitness so he has more of a chance of moving on, or stick him with the U21s where he can't have a proper pre-season and is always playing catch up, like happened last season, and then struggle throughout?
The thing about Sharp is that he is a goalscorer and thats about it. Nevertheless, an out and out goalscorer can be quite an asset, take Gary Lineker or Gerd Muller for example (Muller was a similar build to Sharp as well). Some of the goals Sharp scored for us in the Championship were little deflections and not much more, but they went in and were critical. Muller never scored anything outside the six yard area that I can recall and yet he was of Germany's most important players. I'm not suggesting that Sharp is in that sort of class but you get the feeling that he ought to flourish with better players around him creating decent chances. I don't see any reason why we can't persevere with him during the pre-season friendlies at least. Its not as if we are blessed with goalscorers at the moment (at least, anyone proven in the Premier League). Having said all that I'm not really optimistic that he is the man.
We need to sign another striker anyway, unless by some miracle Osvaldo finds his way back into the team and impresses. We'll be left with new guy (hopefully Ings), Pelle, Rodriguez and Gallagher. Sharp will not have a chance.
