Saints have now confirmed that Grazing Pelle has left the club and we at the Ugly Inside would like to pay tribute to his time at the club.

It is fair to say that Graziano Pelle had a tough start to his career at Southampton Football Club, there were those who found it hard to accept that he had replaced club legend Rickie Lambert and that meant that a section of the crowd got on his back from literally 15 minutes into his first home game and some of them never got off it.

But the Italian showed that he had the quality needed to play in the Premier League and in his two seasons he not only led the scoring charts, but created chances for others.

All in all he started 60 Premier League games for Saints plus another 8 as substitute and scored 23 goals, a record of a goal in just less than every 3 games and that is a very good strike rate for any Premier League player.

He can leave Saints knowing that he has done a great job for the club in his two seasons and that he has shown the doubters that they were too quick to jump on his back.

Sadly though all good things must come to an end and the trick in football is to sell on a player at just the right moment for the best money before he starts to lose his form due to age.

In this respect Pelle is following the same path as Rickie Lambert, when SRL left he was at the peak of his form, but the reality was that age was against him and he didn't have the pace for the Premier League as has been shown by his two years since leaving St Mary's.

Now that process is being repeated for Pelle who leaves the club just one day short of two years since his arrival and only four days shy of his 31st birthday.

Saints bought him for £8 million from Feyenoord and are now selling him for a fee believed to be around £13 million to Chinese club Shandong Luneng.

This is a lot more than Saints could normally have hoped to have achieved in the sale of a player of this age, indeed Ronald Koeman was eager to take the Italian to Everton, but found himself unable to justify a fee of that size for a 31 year old, nor afford to match the £125k a week wages.

Some Saints fans will whinge about another player sale, but the reality is this is the modern day Premier League, you have to keep evolving and you have to keep buying at the right price and also selling at the right time, this does not make us a selling club, but a progressive one that is not caught resting on its laurels, the Premier League is full of teams every year that have allowed their side to grow old without improvement and suddenly find that members of it have gone past their sell by date so to speak.

So good luck to Graziano Pelle, he has not only been good business for Saints, but he has been a good player, the fact that he has only been here two seasons means that he cannot be classed as a club legend, but he has done more in those two seasons for the club than many have done in a far longer period.

Photo: Action Images

ChristchurchSaint added 15:14 - Jul 11 Sad to see GP go as he was an asset to the team, but as you say Nick, we have to move on, my only concern is that the money from him and Mane should be spent to keep our squad up to the necessary standard to meet our needs on 4 fronts for the coming season.
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Big_T added 15:43 - Jul 11 Big fan of the man, great professional and we were lucky to have him here. Good luck for the future.
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pintsizedsaint added 15:50 - Jul 11 Really appreciate Pelle - at the time he seemed a bit of a gamble as he had not exactly set the world alight, but he proved the doubters wrong. Only sticking point was the periods of inconsistency - although when he got past that his purple patches were amazing! I'm glad he didn't go to Everton or Chelsea. He leaves the club in a positive way and will therefore be one we will have fond affections for. And to get a sizeable profit on him at the age of 31 is outstanding! Rumour is that Austin was his replacement (as he was potentially to leave in January this year) and therefore we will not be getting another in this window. That might displease those who doubt Austin's fitness - but Shane Long has come on in bounds and we shouldn't ignore J-Rod, Seager and Chambers. We are well stocked.

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IWOZTHERE added 16:30 - Jul 11 It's a shame but a 'no brainer' really.Good luck GP. Fingers crossed the lad from Bayern Munich is coming in at about the same money.He sounds ideal ? There's a lot of money still in the pot...Is it going to be used or absorbed?
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SanMarco added 16:49 - Jul 11 Sad to see him go and I agree with all the positive comments. This is not one to whinge over (unlike Mane in my opinion) but I do worry about the fitness of Austin and Jayrod. I think we need to buy another goal scorer.
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SaintDownUnder added 17:06 - Jul 11 100% agree. I've said a few times we won't realise how good he was until he goes, he will be difficult to replace. He will need to be replaced as a strike force of long, Austin and JRod doesn't have enough games in it let alone goals. The interesting thing though here is that replacing Pelle with a younger and better player will cost a magnitude higher than $13m. Goal scorers are the one area where you can't afford to get the gamble wrong and we've stripped out a decent number of goals and assists with Pelle and mane leaving. That said the owners have a 7 year track record of continued rejuvenation and improvement of the team and squad and so there's no reason not to believe we'll build and be stronger again this season.

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DPeps added 18:41 - Jul 11 Pelle has been a fantastic player, and as others have said he'll be missed. Let's not forget that he was carrying an injury for most of last season. It would be very very risky to not replace Pelle, given all the uncertainities over Jay and Austin. We've also lost Juanmi, Gaston and Mane so we've gone from having too many options to not enough.
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highfield49 added 18:57 - Jul 11 Astute purchase and even more astute sale. Is it possible that the club actually know what they're doing and not only is Charlie Austin now fully fit but JayRod is going to be back to something like his form of two years ago? I know we all like to speculate, it's a natural part of following the team, but I'm convinced that if the club thinks the squad needs strengthening in a specific area funds will be available.

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corkcitysaint added 19:54 - Jul 11 Disappointed to see him go as I thought he always gave his all on the pitch. Even though he had some barren spells he always got stuck in and fought. For a tall guy, he had bags of skill and a great touch and linked the play up well. I wish him the best for his Chinese adventure. Personally, I think he's mad going there. yeah, the money is good but he has another couple of years in him at the top level if he wanted. From the clubs point of view, it's another great bit of business on the transfer fee. At least it's one in the eye for Koeman!

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LftC added 08:55 - Jul 12 Great player who proved his worth and helped us through a very tough time, making that time better for us all and helping us move forward, good luck in China me old fruit Pelle
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1teeminants added 21:21 - Jul 12 I liked Pelle a lot. Yes he had his tough times don't they all but he scored some good goals and was great an chesting down and bringing others in. I can't believe some of the negative things some FAns have said about him. Good player, scored goals for his country too and not just tap ins, good quality goals. Good luck Grazianno and thank you.
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SaintBrock added 20:58 - Jul 18 Sad day for fans. Personally, wish he had stayed longer if only for his huge personality. We'll miss him mark my words. Arrivederci Graziano!
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