What game was it that De Ridder could have squared it for us to win the game?, but instead ran with his head down. I can't remember working early has effected my brain.
Which says far far more about the rankings than mayuka. He was ranked above players like snjider for goodness sake it was a complete joke of a list.
Fox. Its not so much that he was poor (always so in my opinion) but that it took everyone so long to realise it.
But at Championship level, he wasn't poor. At least not in my opinion. For me, all I have realised is that he is miles away from being a PL player. I'm amazed that it took people so long to realise that, prior to Fox, it was Harding who was our weak link. But I also accept that it was only when he made the move up to Championship level, that it became exceptionally obvious too see. And moreover, despite my massive dislike of Harding, I would never suggest him as one of our worst signings.
I'd go with Forte because we bought an average League One striker on a 3 and a half year deal, when just a year a half later we are in the PL. Just beats De Ridder for me, he did look effective at times as an impact sub but as time went on, it was evident how poor he was. Players like N'Guessan and Bignall may have been our worst players, but they were only on loan and not intended to be a regular feature. The biggest flop is probably Mayuka or even De Ridder, who I think was meant to be Chamberlain's replacement!
*sigh* The hate for De Ridder is just silly. He's hasn't done what we'd hoped for sure, but he really wasn't that expensive and I think the expectations of him were ever that high. At the time we were a newly promoted Championship side, so I don't think it was ever expected that he would be a good Premier League player. I think maybe we hoped he could reach that goal but it wasn't like Jay Rodriguez or Clyne. It turned out that he wasn't quite as good as we thought, but also Saints exceeded expectations and reached the Premier League ahead of schedule, and also that Jason Puncheon somehow ended up back in the side and turned out to be awesome. I don't think he was brought in as an instant starter in the same manner as Fox was. And he hasn't been "detrimental" to the side as mostly all he's done is been a second half sub, mostly playing 10-20 minutes. Hardly a big deal. I would say he is pretty much the Championship version of Mayuka. I don't mind too much if Saints take a shot at those kinds of players. It's okay if they don't work out. And Mayuka still has time to surprise us. Probably Lee and Maya Yoshida are the two biggest disappointments. Both of them were brought in with a bit of fanfare, and at a time when we were looking to be in the Premier League or were already in. Unfortunately Lee has been injured but he certainly hasn't justified the price tag. And if you want to take someone who HAS played and been detrimental, it's Yoshida. I don't think he is much better, if at all, than Hooiveld. We needed a big CB signing in the summer, and Yoshida was it. That decision has cost us quite a few points.
I can't agree about Yoshida. He was thrown into the team and often played out of position...he's doing well for us now he's settled down.
Just goes to show how we can watch the same game and come away with completely different opinions. I thought that Harding was outstanding last year before he got injured and was replaced by Fox.
I voted for Harlee Dean as I still don't understand the benefit of his signing. Bignall, Shea, Falque etc. were loans brought in to cover for injured players so I get that. Forte, Dickson, De Ridder etc. became victims of our own success in that they could never keep up with the pace Southampton moved through the divisions. Harlee Dean was signed as a youth prospect but was quite clearly, not very good. Although, Mayuka has the potential to become the worst signing if he doesn't make the step up in the next season or so, mainly because of the ridiculous transfer fee and the fact that my little brother keeps going on about how amazing he is on FIFA.
Yeah, I really hate to criticize Yoshida as he always gives good effort. It's not like he's awful. It's just that he is the weakest player in the starting XI, and in all likelihood will become a reserve after this year. That shouldn't happen for a player who was brought in to start at a position we were looking to strengthen and really should have been our first priority. It's maybe less his fault than that of Saints for not going out and get someone better when they seemingly had the money to do so. But it still ended up being a bad purchase, IMO. If there was one player/position this summer you could take back and change, wouldn't we all vote to have a better CB?
Have we been watching the same player?! IMHO, Maya has improved massively and in recent weeks has easily been our most solid defender. He's only 24, which is pretty young for a Premier League starting CB and will have plenty of time to grow here.
Harsh. Fox is not a good premier league player. He was a good championship player for us though and that rules him out of this list.
