Saints January Transfer Window Thread - Part II

I assumed the Banega thing was off since Ramirez came back into the team. Injuries aside I'd much rather stick with Gaston now.

The list of clubs who aren't signing Osvaldo is getting pretty short now. I still think he will stay until the Summer, time is a bit short to get that deal through and find a good enough replacement now.

 

More like Ramirez is still here because Banega didn't come. Can't see him coming either now tbh, too many bigger teams being linked.

 

Osvaldo will be gone by Thursday.

 

What a disappointment he has been. Not so much on the playing field as I was willing to accept that he might take time to settle in, but I don't feel that he was willing to make a real effort to settle down when MP and NC took a chance on him. He should have tried to avoid further controversy after his recent suspension during an important time for us...seems a very self centred person who accepts no personal responsibility.

 

Bet you 50p he isn't. To go into the charity box of the loser's choice.

Vin

 

I would love him to be back in the fold and rediscover his form...but not holding my breath.

 

I'll have a bit of that action as well. Dani is going to be causing us trouble for longer than that.

 

He's definitely got form..

 

Who is a step down

 

We are actually over-performing by one league place, given our place in the spending table.

http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/pdf/wp60_eng.pdf

 

Ah but if you do it by wages, I am sure we come out lower than 10th, and that's the one that really costs you money.

 

And the book "Soccernomics" suggests that wages are more important than fees in predicting performance. If that's so we're outperforming on the metric that really matters.

Vin

 

Yeah, we've done a very good job overall as far bringing in players. Everyone brings in a dud now and again. On the wage front, of course it helps tremendously to have some young academy products playing well for us.

I'm personally not too hung up about Osvaldo's transfer fee. If they think they can get him straightened out then we should keep him. But if he needs to go, he needs to go. It stinks to lose what might be a decent chunk of change, but you have to look at that as a sunk cost. What are the chances his value goes up vs down if we keep him along with the possible cost to the team performance?

I think that we do a good enough job in the market that we can pull off selling Osvaldo for say, 8 million and bring someone in at that price (and probably lower wages) that can contribute as much as Osvaldo.

 

Well it wouldn't be difficult, but Osvaldo's ability is far greater than he has shown on a consistent basis for us, and we need someone like that to take us to the next level. That's not easy to find for £8m.

 

I agree with that. But I look at that as a valid, but completely different issue. We have to find a superstar-level attacking talent from somewhere.

But there are other options now and in the future. Maybe Lallana or Rodriguez can step up, or maybe it is someone from the academy, or maybe we sell someone and make a big move in the summer. Just because we lost our high-ceiling player doesn't mean we have to immediately replace him with a similar high-ceiling/high risk player. Nor are we necessarily limited to the 8 million (or whatever) we get from the sale.

We can get just a solid first-teamer for now and get the high-ceiling guy later in some other way.

 

Wonder if we will get any tit-bits post-match... probably not.

 

I wonder how much Wenger has offered for Gallagher!

 

Doubt there would have been significant progress since yesterday.

 

Need a striker more then a cb.

 

West Ham would probably be in the top 8 on wages. lol

We are doing great and Gallacher looked like he can make the step up today.