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Saints Finally Land Osvaldo Sunday, 18th Aug 2013 20:53
Saints have once again broken their transfer record, after a lengthy chase they have finally landed Itallian International striker Pablo Osvaldo.
Saints quest for a striker finally ended on Sunday evening with the announcement that Pablo Osvaldo has been signed from AS Roma on a four year contract for a reported fee of around £15.million thus smashing the club's transfer record itself set only a month or so ago with the arrival of Wanyama.
Certainly Osvaldo looks to have impressive statistics, in his two years with Roma he has averaged almost exactly a goal every two games, a pretty good average, it has been in recent years that his career has blossomed, in fact after joining Mauriccio Pochettino at Espanyol he started to hit the goals a lot more regularly bringing a move to Roma for around the same fee that they have received for him to end his spell in the Eternal City.
Aged 27 Osvaldo began his career in his native Argentina before moving to Italy in his late teens qualifying for Italian citizenship through his great grandfather he opted to represent that country rather than that of his birth and won his first cap for the Azurri in October 2011, after a spell out of favour he was recalled and scored 3 times but has recently found himself out of favour again not making the squad for the confederation cup in Brazil in the summer, however he did play in Italy's recent friendly against Argentina and will be hoping that doing well at Saints will help him get into the squad for the World Cup in 2014.
A strong powerful player he is a colourful character in March 2012 he punched a teammate in the face for not passing to him and was suspended by Roma and this move has been shrouded in controversy as Roma looked to cash in on him despite being leading scorer last season.
What this will mean for Rickie Lambert is unclear, ironically after perhaps the best week of his career he now finds himself for the first time with his place under threat at Saints, the problem as lambert will be well aware is that if you pay £15 million for a player then he is going to play and with Saints playing only a lone striker and both players being of the same ilk it is going to be one or the other rather than a formation to accommodate both of them, Rickie is the man in possession of the shirt and although Osvaldo looks likely to be available for the game against Sunderland next week, he should start ahead of the new man, however he needs to be on top of his game as Osvaldo wont be happy sitting on the bench for long, if Lambert continues to score, Pochettion might have a tough decision on his hands and with both men knowing that if they are to make their respective countries squads over the season and get in the World Cup squad, then they wont do that if they are not starting regularly, Sadly this could mean that one of them isn't with Saints by the end of this season.
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Nick whilst i agree that lambert and osvaldo are similar type players i think you will find a lot of squad rotation and if they only play one up front its great competition for players. we will definately NOT be looking to move Lambert on. he is a great striker we all know that. We are looking to build a talented squad and you dont sell one of your best players to do that.
The only thing that this spells out is Mayuka will probably be sold now.
I would say we wont be looking to move him on too, but Lamberts England chances wll b damaged if he isn't playing week in week out, so he may want to go
They will score a lot of goals. That's how. Remember Chivers & Davies, Channon & Osgood, MacDougall & Boyer, Keegan & Moran? Those days are back again. you should welcome them, Nick.
Honestly, apart from the frequent malapropisms in your column, the most common thread is depressively narrow minded and downbeat analysis. Just exactly why could this signing mean that one of these two might not be with us by the end of the season? All the top clubs have several strikers, and indeed several options in all key roles, and have had for the last decade or so. We are now aspiring to be in that league, and given that no-one leaves Saints if Nicola does not want them to, why are we now any different? Also given that Pochettino has apparently spent much time and energy getting this guy to sign, why do you think he hasn't bought into the project? Competition for places and all (and lets give him the benefit if the doubt Nick, Pablo probably has read about Ricky's week online as well!?!). Come on babe, wake up and try to give some more thoughtful and less depressively narrow minded analysis. About time you were challenged a bit more I think. Very best wishes ;-)
Agree with 'iswhite10'... come on Nick!! you have sort of turned this 'groundbreaking for Saints' news into total negativity'. An Italian International with an English International as a front line aint that bad in my eyes... Mo Po will work out how to best utilise them both. I now look at our team with real positivity.. sound keeper....quality young backs.. more assured centres... midfield...well...enough said!! wings covered...up front, covered!! we now have young talent, power, creativity, flair.. this really is a great night to be a Saint...and we have just been mentioned on MOTD2 re the transfer!!
Its great to have that sort of front line and I really hope that we can keep both happy, as I said if Rickie didn't have that Engalnd cap now, perhaps we would have been able too, but he has ambitions for the world cup.
Iswhite, its great to challenge my views I want them to be challenged, Im not saying they are right or they will happen, they are just my opinions, but you haven't challenged them, you have just called them narrow minded, you haven't told me how you think that both can be kept happy, or perhaps made the suggestion that perhaps both MP & NC felt that Rickie needed replacing, again before last weeks fairytale, questions were being asked in that Rickie's goals driep up under Pochettino last season.
Again im made up that we have signed Osvaldo its great we have got a player of this calibre, but because I suggest a few things doesn't make me negative, im sure that Pochettino will be looking at how he gets round the problem and its a nice one to have
good weblink that braziliansaint - tend to agree, Poch wont be caught dead playing 4-4-2, but think Rod will be the one that will be replaced in the team now with Osvaldo
MP might do the same as late last season: Have RL drop back and feed Osvaldo like he did J-Rod. ( though it hurt RL's goal total). Anyway, with this boy, Punch and Gaston better learn to pass!
Interesting article in the link although it asks more questions than it answers, perhaps the most telling statement is that the player himself wants to play as a striker and its in this position he is looking to force his way into the Italian World cup squad, I think he will have had assurances about his position, this perhaps summed it up,
"He wants to be No. 1, the go-to guy, and Saints must be willing to offer him that if they want to contain his character."
Lambert is the same, he is looking to be a goalscorer for England so wont want to drop into a deeper role, anyway that would take one out of the central three in midfield an area where we are well served already.
All in all though its good to see we have options and things can be swapped around a little, fact of the matter is at the moment all we can offer are our opinions, over the next month or so we will find out what the opinion is of the man whose one counts Pochettino
Do you honestly think we have spent all this time chasing this guy, and spending all this money without considering how he will fit in to the team? Poch quite obviously rates Rickie, and the obvious one to miss out in the short term will be Rodriguez. but the main point is how it strengthens the squad.
Tony Cascarino in The Times season preview on Saturday said that he expected us to do well, but desperately needed an additional striker to help Lambert. Now we have that. Also, Lambert has only just signed a new contract, and these players have not just appeared on a whim. I have banged on before about our strategy, and the fact we had three 18 year olds playing Saturday, and the type of signings we have made fit perfectly to that.
For what it's worth, I think our formation will be flexible, with players given licence to rotate, so whilst we may play with one up front, it may not be the same one! If you look at the way Schneiderlin and Wanyama work together, this is already happening in midfield. The other point to this is that our overall squad is much stronger than last season, so even if we rest players we should be more competitive in the cups, which after all is another route to Europe.
Enjoyed Saturday, and now even more excited about the season ahead!
This is a great signing for us. Poche will know exactly where he wants Osvaldo to play in the team. It was evident on Saturday again that for all of our possession and dominance we didn't threaten the opposition goal much. Osvaldo will help us create and score goals. Lambert will probably drop a little deeper, which he often does under Poche anyway, and Osvaldo will move central off of the wing like J-Rod does for us now. I think Poche's 1st choice (form dependant) would be Lambert playing central with Osvaldo and Ramirez coming in off the wings. And if Ramirez hasn't found any form then we've got J-Rod or Lallana to bring on. This signing is just what we need; a bit more cutting edge in the final third. I can see many a goal coming from Lambert teeing up Osvaldo. Bring on Sunderland!!!
While I'm in a gibbering on mood, the wider point for me, and why I'm so excited about this season is that it promises to be FUN!
I know you are a 'glass half empty' kind of bloke Nick, but I just love the fact that we are doing things our way and being positive.
This was brought home to me by seeing Sam Allardyce interviewed on Sky about his hopes for the new season.....his very words were that they got 46 points last year, so to get 50 this time would be 'fantastic!' I'm sure the hearts of all the West Ham fans, that have just spent god knows what on their season tickets, must have missed a beat at the prospect of seeing Stuart Downing lumping it to Andy Carroll on that roller-coaster ride!! And to follow, David Gold said he was concerned about Southampton spending so much money as we are rivals for 'mid-table security'......SO BORING! Pretty sure NC hasn't shelled out £36 million to try and get 50 points! All Poch says is that our aim is to win the next game, then the next one, etc...etc.
So, even though I lean towards the glass half-full, and it may all go pear shaped yet, at least we are going to have a right go, and I did sense a positivity at WBA amongst both the fans and the team which I really enjoyed. Come on Nick, we've had some rough times....lets have some FUN!!
I'm with Nick's cautiousness here. Hope I'm wrong but I suspect it will take a while before the signing impacts on results , if it does, and means we stop running out of steam in the final third of the field. You don't think Adam could be at risk in all this? Having said that great to be a Saint today
MINT! Good teams have several players vying for competition in different positions. The formation we are going to play his season could be considered one up front but it could also be considered three up front in the same way as teams like Chelsea do it. At home we will be even more positive than we were on Saturday which often looked like three up top to me. Poch knows this guy and there is no reason it could not be Lambert, J Rod and Osvaldo with three regocnised centre forwards.
It is a squad game now and nobody can expect, or should expect 90 mins every week. Imagine having a squad that is good enough to keep lads like Gaston as impact players! I am blown away by how good our team looks right now.
