Dani Osvaldo is about to join Italian giants Inter Milan according to some media reports, this departure though will perhaps be of some relief to Saints supporters.
If osvaldo does exit the St Mary's dressing room door it will bring to an end one of the strangest and most expensive episodes in Saints history, just under a year ago Osvaldo arrived from Roma as Saints record signing bringing with him hopes that Saints were on their way to better things.
The player had a reputation as a bit of a bad boy but it was hoped that Pochettino under whom he had worked before would be able to keep him in check, back then I warned that Osvaldo had left Roma due to wanting to play as the lone striker in a formation similar to Saints and that this might spell the end for Rickie Lambert at least as first choice striker, after all you don't pay your record fee of £15 million to start a player on the bench every week.
Pochettino though seemed unable to make a decision, he tried to play a front three that rotated, this works if you are Barcelona, but doesnt if you firstly have a player in Rickie lambert who is not suited to anywhere else but a role up front and secondly if one of those players does not want to play out wide and in fairness has made this quite clear before agreeing to sign.
The end result was not going to be in doubt, initially the system had some success when playing poorere sides at home, but overall wasn't really working and was easily combated against better teams, the reality was we had one player out of sorts and another whose temper level was rising and was waiting to explode.
It exploded first at Newcastle and a ban followed, but it was not long before it erupted nearer to home and Jose Fonte caught the full brunt of it, a swift loan spell to Juventus was the result.
Sadly it could have been different, Osvaldo was not handled very well at all by Mauriccio Pochettino, he could not seem to make a decision on giving Osvaldo a decent run in the team and sowed the seeds of discontent in the player, it is fine to say that Osvaldo should have been prepared to play anywhere, but in Osvaldo's defence he probably would not have joined the club if these were the terms, the player showed in bursts what he could do, but never really got the chance to have a run in the team and prove it and some of that blame has to lay with the way the manager handled him.
Now it will go down as the most expensive folly in the club's history, the press reports are unclear whether this is a loan or a full transfer but if it is the latter then we as a club are sure to be drastically out of pocket, when we signed Osvaldo he was drastically overpriced, now we would be lucky to get half of that £15 million, especially given as the players wages will be so high we will perhaps even have to pay him off to leave.
It will of course put an end to a sorry saga with the departure of another player whose arrival was not thought out or handled well, the only plus point is that it will put another few million into the transfer kitty.