After he played for 20 minutes at the end of the game against West Brom there is a feeling that if he stays at the Club Gaston Ramirez might be used in a more sparing manner.
I often said last season that in many ways, as good as he undoubtably is, Gaston Ramirez was not suited to the type of game Saints would be involved in most of the time, as a team in the bottom third of the table we would often be on the back foot, virtually at every away game but also home matches as well and this would not suit the style of Gaston whose game is not about workrate and getting behind the ball when we lose it, but creating chances in the final third.
Certainly he was used a lot less by Mauricio Pochettino in the second half of the season and there was a feeling that perhaps the summer would see Gaston depart as again he isn't in the mould of Pochettino's sides which are about high tempo and pushing sides back.
But assuming that he isn't sold in the last week or so of the transfer window, what will the season hold for Ramirez ?
In away games especially I think he will find it very hard to get a place in the starting line up, as was shown against West Brom we will have a certain game plan and as mentioned it relys on work rate, however Mauricio Pochettino showed on Saturday that he also realises that guile is called for sometimes and it was good to see that having dominated the game against the Baggies without creating too many clear cut chance, the manager was willing to change tactics and bring Ramirez on.
This could give some hope that the Uruguayan's career at St Mary's is not yet dead, however away from home I think he will find it increasingly difficult to get anything more than a period at the end of the game when we are need a goal, apart from if we are dominating a game, but in reality that didn't happen much last season and wont happen as often as some would like this term, Pochettino's plan is clear on the road, work hard give little away and try to nick a goal or two, Gaston wont be in that plan till later in the game.
But in home games it could be different, we will spend a lot more time on the ball, we are best when teams come at us and we can attack them with speed, but when they sit back behind the ball in home games then that is when we could use Ramirez, that could be the case on Saturday when Sunderland visit and it will be in this type of game that Gaston will stand his best chance of starting a game.
Last season showed clearly that when Saints dominate games and get ahead, Gaston is a class act, but the fact is that more often than not that isn't the case and that work rate is needed more than the ability to pass, so his chances of game time on the pitch depend on just what sort of season we have, if we rise up the table and win games then his chances will rise, but if we struggle then I think Pochettino will out of necessity have to use someone with more pace and work rate in that central hole.
I am more confident that Ramirez might perhaps have a future at the club than I was a week ago, the manager is clearly aware of what Ramirez can and cannot do and to that mind when and when he should not use him, there is no doubt that Gaston is a talent but the problem for him was last season he was in the wrong team in the league, if he had sigend for Liverpool as was rumoured, like Coutinho people might now be raving about him, that might yet still be the case, but in the short term I think he needs to be patient, get minutes on the pitch when he can and he might just find if Saints start to rise up the league as is the hope, that that game time increases and that at home especially he is indispensable.