Osvaldo has been signed by Southampton.

[Lighthouse]

Shame that we cannOt afford the top players and have to be clever on loan players and players on the way down and old,which is very short term. But you cut your cloth etc.

[Berserker]

I was surprised that Match of the Day had to dub their manager yesterday when he was interviewed, they even turned the camera off him as it was so out of sync. At least Osvaldo will be able to understand him even if alot of other players can't. Mind you i suppose with so many players and managers in the Prem coming from different countries there must be a bit of a language barrier anyhow.

[HatterDon]

15m quid for an Italian striker who hasn't played a match in the Prem? I think it's good business for the club to let him go to Southampton.

[alfie]

How much have they spent so far this window? I make it about £37m. It's the Portsmouth model.

With the players they've bought you have to say they're basically guaranteed to stay in the prem though. In no danger from becoming the next portsmouth with the extra 20mil from tv money again next year.

The Ha's thought that as well.

[epsomraver]

Their new manager can't even speak a word of English yet, let alone advise, coach or manage a player like Osvaldo. Although their intent to spend big seems impressive, I'm not 100% sure this is going to be very successful.

They both speak Spanish,Osvaldo is Argentinian by birth and has already played under  this  manager, who  seems to have done well at present at getting the team to play well.

[epsomraver]

They had three 18 year olds playing for them yesterday. That is very impressive.

:plus one: there are some real uninformed posts on here at times

[The Equalizer]

Pretty gutted that Southampton can get a player like that and we can't.

It also goes to show how some clubs just never learn. They've already had one brush with oblivion due to finances, how long before the next one comes along?

[Aaron]

Their new manager can't even speak a word of English yet, let alone advise, coach or manage a player like Osvaldo. Although their intent to spend big seems impressive, I'm not 100% sure this is going to be very successful.

LOL

[Alternative]

Bent deal is far better business.

Proven Premier League striker for minimal outlay. There are no prizes for spending lots of cash.

[Lighthouse]

The fee is something we couldn't match in 15 million years. More to the point how much better will Osvaldo be for Saints than say Bent for us. We just don't know. They have plenty of good forwards now and will no doubt do very well given the chances. It is a gamble but no greater than spending little and hoping not to go down.

We will have to wait which is the best option.

[TWFL]

They've got a very good spine now. Lovren, Wanyama and Osvaldo. Surprise package I reckon for this season.

[Ordar]

Yeah Southampton have invested well in key areas. Ramirez and Osvaldo were massively overpriced though. I guess thats the sacrifice you need to make to make better players gamble on smaller teams. They must have spent more than 60m in 2 years. Thats alot

As has been said, Bent is a much safer option, and is proven as a premier league goalscorer. Osvaldo may well come over and do well, but is he going to perform 3 times better than Bent? I'm not so sure. He's only 2 years younger and unproven in England. I think I prefer the safe bet.

[Irelands_number1]

people would seriously rather pay £15 million for a player whos unproven in the Premiership, could easily flop.
Who for the same price you could buy:

7.5 Michu's
3 Dimitar Berbatovs
2 Benteke's


I wont continue but 15 mil is a crazy price and looks like one of those big floppy moves

I personally would much rather the loan with the option for Bent (the proven premier league goalscorer) for 5mil than splashing 15mil on a complete risk

[Jack Fulham]

I saw someone make a good point about Soton on twitter. Yeah, they've spent huge amount of money but there unlikely to break into top 6 or 7. Its a lot of money to spend to try and get a top 10 finish.

[Joe McDonald]

From the Guardian transfer update:

OK, the next few posts will be about Pablo Osvaldo then. What a gamble that is by Southampton. A brilliant player, no doubt, but quite a controversial one as well. He has punched a team-mate, he loves Argentinian rock n' roll and he hardly endeared himself to Roma fans by driving around in this Napoli-coloured Mini with a picture of Maradona on it.

Osvaldo has never been at a club more than two years: Huracán (2004-06), Atalanta (2006), Lecce (2007-09), Bologna (2009-10), Espanyol (2010-11, where he played for Mauricio Pochettino) and Roma (2011-13). It was at Roma he punched his team-mate Erik Lamela (who could still join Spurs this summer) after the latter reportedly said to Osvaldo: "You are not Maradona".

Last Osvaldo post then before moving on to other stories. Here are the tweets in which his girlfriend Jimena Baron told Roma fans they were "pathetic" before posting a picture with a middle finger raised, telling the Roma fans to F*** Off. You could say that it was always going to be difficult for Osvaldo to stay at the club from that moment on even if the Roma fans had written "Osvaldo, you piece of s**t" outside the couple's home. There's a lesson for Saints fans somewhere in there... Either way, he is a brilliant player and it will be interesting to see how he does this season.

[jmh]

people would seriously rather pay £15 million for a player whos unproven in the Premiership, could easily flop.
Who for the same price you could buy:

7.5 Michu's
3 Dimitar Berbatovs
2 Benteke's


I wont continue but 15 mil is a crazy price and looks like one of those big floppy moves

I personally would much rather the loan with the option for Bent (the proven premier league goalscorer) for 5mil than splashing 15mil on a complete risk

Michu was so cheap when Swansea bought him precisely because he was unproven in the Premier League and, at 26, only had one good season at the top level in Spain to his name.  He'd cost a lot more than 2 million pounds now that he scored so many goals in his first season in England.  So that's not really a great comparison.  Nor is Benteke for that matter because his transfer fee was from before he was proven in England.  The Berbatov price is only really comparable since he's the one who was a proven player when bought for the price that you're referencing above, but he was 31 when we bought him for that price and Osvaldo is 27.  What Southampton paid so much for is a player who already has multiple years of success at the top level in Spain and Italy and also has a few years of his prime still in front of him.  He'd maybe have cost even more if he didn't have the character issues, I think; look at what Villa paid for Bent when he was the same age as Osvaldo is now.

[Frankie-Peter Taylor]

I'm not expecting £10m on a single player from Fulham let alone £15m! The reason Southampton can splash the cash and we can't, I feel, is stadiums. We're rejuvenating and expanding the Hammersmith end whereas Southampton have been at St Mary's for years now and do not have to pay however much the expansion of the Hammy End is costing.

Though with the Southampton owners being worth £3bn (over £1bn more than Khan) and the 3rd richest club in the league, once they get into Europe, I wonder if that's when the true spending starts? Fantastic academy as well, if they weren't close to the death of Southampton, they'd probably still have or only just sold Walcott, Bale and Oxlade-Chamberlain...

[Frankie-Peter Taylor]

They had three 18 year olds playing for them yesterday. That is very impressive.

Luke Shaw looks like an excellent LB. Future England star.

Future? I'd take him to the World Cup.

[Frankie-Peter Taylor]

Their new manager can't even speak a word of English yet, let alone advise, coach or manage a player like Osvaldo. Although their intent to spend big seems impressive, I'm not 100% sure this is going to be very successful.

He can speak English but has confirmed that he isn't fluent enough to give a good quality press conference/post match interview, which I find fair enough and actually pretty intelligent.

Also, he managed Pablo Osvaldo at Espanyol and was the coach that kickstarted Osvaldo's career, pretty good I think.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

I think this would have been terrible terrible business for us.... there are much better options than osvaldo for that price.... We dont need a striker as much anyway now we have got bent... We need a CM...