if a club like say liverpool came in for him i'd be worried because there the sort of club he'd be mad to turn down at his age. But not West Ham, their no bigger than Saints. We can match those type of clubs
Not for wages we can't, some of their players are on a huge wedge. Stil, they've got to get past Cortese first and as Nigel says "good luck with that".
I think that understates SKD's options at the time. In the end it came down to West Ham vs. Saints, but only because Davis held out for so long wanting to play for Southampton. Saints were coming off an awful season where Davis had somewhat re-established himself after a shaky start and a high-profile failure at Sunderland. He was one of the bright spots on a terrible team. Lallana and Schneiderlin were just getting established, Oxlade-Chamberlain was a year or two away, Bale and Walcott were gone. Moreover, it was a club that was in complete disarray off the pitch. No manager, no owner, in a world of financial hurt, starting off with a 10 point deduction (if they started the next season at all). A starting spot in a Premier League Team was probably not going to come his way, but had he declared himself available right at the end of the season, he could have caught on with a number of Championship or League One sides where he would have had the inside track to being the #1, most of them in much better shape. There was no guarantee that Saints would be bought, that the new owners would want him, or that they'd have the means to pay him even decent League One wages. It was pretty much a no-brainer for him to leave. But he held out until the last possible second and really only went to West Ham (no disrepect to West Ham) because he couldn't wait any longer. And as soon as he found out Saints were bought he turned right around and signed for the club. The sale and Davis signing happened the same day I think. And that was huge as it immediately got Cortese/Liebherr on the fans' good side and we all knew we would at least have arguably our best player back. Lambert and Fonte also took a risk and probably an initial step down in joining us, but at that point they knew they would at least be on good wages, and they knew Davis was already there as a decent player, and the word had gotten out that Liebherr was loaded and had huge plans and Cortese/Liebherr had a chance to sell them on their vision. Davis had none of those assurances at the start of the offseason when he clearly seemed to make up his mind that for whatever reason he really wanted to stay at Saints. As the off-season progressed everyone else left but Davis held on until the very end, and the club was bought in the nick of time. Just one day... maybe even a few hours later, and everything could have been entirely different.
We can all rest easy in our beds because WHU have just signed another top Premiership striker so won't be needing Rickie anymore....Chamakh fron Arsenal....LOL! Bet the Arsenal fans are rolling around on the floor with laughter that another club has been daft enough to buy this looser from them
