Saints January Transfer Window Thread - Part II

Yes. It's not going to happen though. So we'll be moaning forever.

 

Is this a thread to moan about transfers? I swear some posters just post crap to cause a reaction.

 

Haha.

Trust saints fans to moan about the club breaking it's transfer record.

The club did absolutely nothing wrong here, the only person accountable is Osvaldo for being a complete tit.

 

Good Lord. We haven't actually lost any money yet have we? In fact, if Juve do end up buying him in the summer for that rumoured €20m we'll actually have made a profit!

 

I'm being slightly facetious of course. But you can't say the club did absolutely nothing wrong. They knew what kind of character he was and they took a big risk signing him. There was a reason why he was available and there was a reason why no bigger clubs came in for him, and that should have been ample warning really.

Hell, there were people on here expressing doubts about his temperament when this transfer was but a twinkle in Cortese's eye.

 

Gianluca Di Marzio says both Juventus and Southampton have signed the paperwork now. Osvaldo has a medical in the morning.

 

I agree with you. What makes me glum is that he had the tools, it was in his own hands, he threw it away. If we sell him and break even I will still be glum- the club invested time and effort and the fans invested hope.

 

Monaco, Valencia & Juventus amongst others are all interested in him... he must have something about him?

 

Why change the habit of a lifetime?

 

Yeah of course he does, he's very talented. Saying anyone other than Juventus is seriously interested in buying him is speculation though. And even Juventus might not actually want to buy him permanently. If he performs brilliantly for them on loan then they might do, but he's just as likely to get into trouble there as do well isn't he?

 

The only way they would sign him for 20m is if he is actually ends up being worth way more than 20m so even then, it would be a bit of a screw up. Seriously, the option to buy means nothing. If I wanted a player on loan and Saints demanded a 100m option to buy as part of it I'd be happy to give it to them knowing full well I never have to exercise it.

Osvaldo was a bad signing. I can't see it any other way. You can gamble on a player, sure. But you still have to look at the odds. It wasn't the risk-free signing some of you make it out to be. For the amount we paid we must have thought there was a decent chance he'd be productive. And looking at his track record you have to question whether that was indeed the case. I'd also argue that while Saints were probably aware there was a downside to Osvaldo, they probably didn't plan for Osvaldo blowing up this badly and this quickly.

It was, in my mind, definitely a mistake. But also not the worst mistake in the world. And every club makes mistakes. So I'm not going to go crazy over it. The way I see it, Osvaldo was a mistake, but signing Lovren was genius. It's likely that the money lost on Osvaldo will be made up for by the money we saved on Lovren. And then we also got Wanyama. So, overall that was a pretty solid job last summer. But they have to own both decisions. It's not just throwing darts at the wall and hoping you hit something.

You can't just harp on the mistakes, but on the other hand I think you have to recognize the mistakes that were made and see what you can do to avoid them in the future.

 

I'll also add: I bet when the terms come out, they won't be as bad as ptf is predicting. I think they will pay all of his wages and I bet we get some money as well.

 

I hope you're right. I'll think we've played an absolute blinder if we get all his wages and a fee though. We'll probably never know.

 

I agree to some extent on the future fee clause. A sale for €20m may not happen but, as you've said, we don't know 100% that a deal has actually been done and nor do we know the exact terms of the deal.

The real point is that the story of Osvaldo at Saints isn't over yet because he hasn't actually been sold and you can't fully assess the signing until he leaves. I suppose the signing is definitely a failure in the sense that Osvaldo doesn't seem likely to contribute hugely to Southampton but it's still possible we may get our money back or even make a profit and in either of those situations the transfer becomes more of a neutral one.

I think the real mistake was signing a player who didn't really want to come to the club. I'm obviously speculating here but I don't think Osvaldo was ever that keen to join Southampton. I suspect he eventually joined because the abuse from Roma fans became so bad he HAD to leave them and nobody else was seriously interested in signing him so he had no choice.

 

I don't know the terms but the Dani to Juve deal has gotta be a calculated risk. Whatever money / wage saving we're getting from the deal the bigger picture is the impact of this loan on his future with saints or his future value.

If Dani does well, and the best chance of that happening right now is deemed to be in Italy not here, there could be an (unlikely) Puncheon style rebirth or at least Dani will attract more interest from buyers in the summer! That is assuming he hasn't actually been effectively sold already!!

 

Osvaldo set for Friday morning medical in Turin, after Juventus and Southampton agree terms: http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014...riday-morning-medical-after-clubs-agree-term/

 

Osvaldo has treated us very badly...pretty sure he angled for a move and he got it.

 

"On 2 March 2008, Osvaldo headed in a cross from teammate Papa Waigo to give Fiorentina a 3–2 win in stoppage time over fierce rivals Juventus."

Saw this on his Wikipedia profile, football is a small game.

 

Meanwhile, Swansea apparently willing to go up to 3 whole million for Cork! Goodbye Jack I don't think.

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.c...fielder-Jack/story-20529077-detail/story.html. Via BBC

 

Yeah that's the most galling part of all this. Whether he intended it to work out this way or not (personally I find it hard to believe he's quite that clever), he behaved atrociously and is basically getting rewarded for it.