Please don't get steamy, FLT. I can see you're starting to get heated from your text. As it happens, I had no idea Saints had offered Jay a new contract. Perhaps all parties decided to hold back until Jay recovers. Isn't that logical..?
Not sure people are saying he's not leaving...they just want proof he wants to. His failure to sign a new contract says to me that he is keeping his options open...he may yet sign, but I can understand that he may not want to commit himself until he sees what else is on offer. He may be playing a risky game if he fails to regain his form. The good thing from our point of view is that losing him may not be a major thing for us anymore.
Well they won't get proof from someone who quotes information from sensitive sources. The best they will get is to look at the meagre or absent efforts to be involved since the managerial change. JWP, for all my speculation that he'd have been off if he wasn't being guaranteed match time that he wouldn't get elsewhere, shows strong involvement on a day to day basis. On whether he's as important as we thought during the summer, i think you're right. He's not our only option with pace any more, and I suspect he benefited from overly accommodating players around him, serving him up even when they were in prime positions to score. He is bloody good at wriggling through and running behind defences though. If he retains his pace he's worth having.
Oh you've got that wrong TSS, I'm chilled. A little presumptuous to suggest that. I am perfectly cool, but maybe if you thought I was getting steamy a little PM would be more appropriate than a public calling out, don't you think? As for the contract offer, Saints offered it in the summer, smack in the middle of his injury, so that theory doesn't wash really. Next? .... Smilie incase you think I am angry
Ok, so what is he keeping his options open for? Another offer (as you said) which implies a consideration to leave. But, as I said when I first popped in... This is my opinion only. Always a flip side to everything.
The risk is not all with the club, because unless they are complete idiots they will have taken Rodriguez's injury into account subsequently attempted to reduce their downside by offering Rodriguez less money. Maybe Rodriguez is comfortable gambling that he returns to full health. And there are other risks as well. There was also the risk that management was clueless or Koeman was a dud and Rodriguez wouldn't want to be here. Or that we could buy up a bunch of strikers and by the time Rodriguez recovered, he'd be frozen out. In which case it might be better to go to a different club where he could get more playing time as he worked his way back to form. It would honestly, be a pretty foolish move to sign a Saints contract during the summer unless it was for gobs and gobs of money. Fonte did it, but he is at a different stage in his career where stability and a place to call home are more important than they would be to Rodriguez. I don't blame Rodriguez for wanting to go. But I credit him for not being a jerk about it. You could just as easily look at him weighing his options as giving Southampton a chance to keep him, as opposed to him looking for a way out. The whole thing seems fair to me. Saints have presumably stuck by Rodriguez during his injury and given him first rate medical care and rehab, so why should he leave? And by staying, you are giving them a chance to change your mind and stay. Or at the very minimum to return to the team and score a few goals and raise your transfer fee. It could be mutually beneficial to both parties for Rodriguez to stay but NOT extend his contract and just see how it all plays out.
You really think they've offered him less money now that is funny! The contract was offered not long before the deadline, so they knew about his injury. It was done at the height of the rumoirs about him wanting out. I am convinced it was done by the club as a statement of intent on JayRod: a "we want you" message and it was made public to pacify fans and to make Jay play his hand. He didn't and I have drawn my conclusions from that. The comment about it being mutually beneficial... Why did we offer the contract in the first place when he was already very injured? Finally you mention "changing your mind"... Was he thinking of leaving then?
