Daily Archives: September 1, 2012

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait…

Posted on by georgeweahscousin
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14th August 2012. Saints are linked with an audacious move for Uruguay wonderkid and London 2012 star Gaston Ramirez. I updated my facebook status accordingly and it took a matter of seconds before the move was labelled as “ridiculous” and “no chance” by friends who support other clubs, particularly Liverpool.

And I have to say, I didn’t necessarily disagree with them, it seemed a little unreal, and as the days passed, it seemed more and more unlikely. I have said before that Twitter is such a good medium for info, and in this case it certainly seemed so, as the updates both positive and negative came from numerous sources. Liverpool fans seemed convinced that Ramirez’ only destination was Anfield, but as other Scouse transfer saga’s unfolded it looks like Liverpool simply didn’t have the financial muscle to sign the playmaker.

Last night at around 18:54 it was finally announced. Gaston is a Saint.

Ramirez flies in…

The star of the Uruguayan olympic team, Ramirez really is a coup for Saints, and as Nigel Adkins so succinctly put it ”What we have got is one of the most exciting prospects in world football coming to St Mary’s.”

One of the best sources for info on the protracted deal was Italian journalist Daniele Labanti of the Corriere di Bologna, the Corriere della Sera local issue. I was delighted when he agreed to answer some questions on Ramirez.

After a long drawn out transfer, Saints fans will be hoping Ramirez is worth the wait. What did you make of the transfer?

DL:- “It was a very difficult deal because too many parts were involved. Saints, Bologna, Penarol and agents all tried to get the best from the deal. Bologna needed the money and when the club understood Ramirez wanted to go, the Italian club decided to sell him. The first trouble was a interview Ramirez did with Gazzetta dello Sport, talking as a ‘Saint’, just after the agreement with Southampton: Bologna were still in talks with the Saints and the Chairman was very upset with that interview. But then all details were managed and the deal was completed.”

Many Saints fans will have only seen him at the Olympics, what are his strengths and weaknesses?

DL:- “Ramirez is a great young player. As a comparison, he had more impact in Italy than Pastore had in Palermo before they sold him to PSG for €43 million. So we can say Southampton completed a good deal for ‘just’ €14 million. Ramirez can dribble, kick with both feet, is quite speedy and has good stamina. He has to improve his mentality, stop (trash) talking with opponents and referee first.”

He was a big hit at Bologna, do you think he can translate his play to the English game?

DL:- “I definitely believe he could be a star in the Premier League. The English game has more ‘spacing’ than the Italian one and Gaston is quite unstoppable if he can run.”

What other players would you liken him to?

DL:- “I don’t want to be irreverent, but the best case is a sort of Zinedine Zidane.”

Were you surprised to see him end up at a club like Southampton?

DL:- “Yes I was. Rumours told of interest from Liverpool and Tottenham and it was supposed he would join a Champions League/Europa League team. But the Saints offer was so rich and Gaston decided to not wait for a  ‘big club’ anymore.”

Many thanks to Daniele for answering these questions and getting me even more excited than I already was!

Gaston Ramirez. You’re Our Guy.

p.s. Up Your’s Mark Lawrenson.

Chris

We did it Maya Way…

Posted on by georgeweahscousin
1

Saints fans were clambering for some defensive strengthening and despite the continuous links with Premier League journeymen and relegation specialists like Scott Dann and Curtis Davies, Nicola Cortese and Nigel Adkins went further afield again.

As ever the these English players seem drastically over priced for what they are and the signing of Japanese Olympic captain Maya Yoshida for a fee believed to be around £2 million seems to be a bargain in comparison.

Highly rated Yoshida signed from Ducth club VVV-Venlo on Thursday and will join up with the squad after the international break.

He will join countryman Tadanari Lee at the club as Nigel Adkins creates a United Nations in Southampton. When Lee signed georgeweahscousin.com hooked up with French Eurosport J-League commentator and Japanese football expert Clément Delestrade and Clément was happy to give us the lowdown on Yoshida too.

“Yoshida is a Nagoya Grampus product and he’s been expected to shine for a long time due to an unusual, in Japanese football, combination of size and talent. We lack big guys at the back and he’s been filling that hole. But let’s come back to the roots, he started in 2007 as a defensive midfielder but was quickly moved to the defense where he was more comfortable. 

His good performances led to a selection for the Olympics in 2008 and as you can see on Wikipedia, the team really disappointed despite a generation which, afterwards, revealed itself to be really strong. He cemented a starting position in Nagoya, which was quite a feat considering he was only 20, and never stopped growing until he got a call from VVV-Venlo, looking for another japanese player after Keisuke Honda’s departure. He signed for them in 2010 but unfortunately, he picked up a big injury during his first training sesssion that delayed his inclusion to the team. He needed 8 months to recover but once healthy, he came back almost straight into the starting eleven. Let’s be honest, VVV are a terrible, horrendous team and even your dog could start there. He’s never looked incredible there, probably because his teammates were really poor, but has still managed to contribute to their survival in the Eredivisie (the last two years they needed a playoff to stay in the top division)

Captaining Japan to victory over Spain at London 2012.

I can say that he’s worth better than that because there’s the national team player Maya Yoshida who has been excellent since his inclusion in 2011. Alberto Zaccheroni trusted him from the get-go. He had already been capped once in 2010 but it was for a match in Yemen, for which the JFA didn’t want to send the senior team due to the military conflict, and I don’t consider it as a real selection. For his first match, he was placed straight into the starting eleven in the Asia Cup, the equivalent of the Euro’s. He scored an unlucky own goal (a deflection) that put Japan behind against Jordan but he had the guts to equalise in the very last minute, a crucial goal that paved the way for Japan to become Champions. Since then he’s an absolute starter and he has added another moment of glory, a goal late into injury time that gave Japan the 1-0 win over North Korea.

Because he’s a young player, a great one, with the stature of a leader who needed to showcase himself in order to get a transfer, the U23 coach Sekizuka decided to select him for his second Olympics despite the fact he was just coming back from an ankle injury he had picked up against Oman. And that’s when he blew our minds, I wasn’t really amused by Yoshida’s goofy character (his blog has a huge following and he does TV shows and stuff) because I thought that was harmful for his football career but I saw a new Yoshida, composed, a leader far from the clown we’re used to seeing, who played at a very high level throughout the competition. He completely fulfilled the role that was given to him by the coach and he was one of the main reasons why Japan kept 4 clean sheets until the semi-final against Mexico. 

After the Olympics I thought he was easily going to find a club, loads of average European players are moving for incredible transfer fees these days, but I was really surprised this was dragged for so long.  In the end I’m very happy he signed for Southampton.”

Thanks Clément for his input. Sounds like we have a real character in Yoshida and more importantly a player with fantastic potential.

Check out Clément’s website on Japanese Football here:- Ganbare Nippon and his thoughts on Tadanari Lee here.
Chris

Turnout Troubles?

Posted on by georgeweahscousin
4

I am very pleased to say that Simon Hall is back with another great peice. This time a thought provoking article about the Wigan game and the empty seats. Chris.

Turnout Troubles?

So after seven long years, Saturday afternoon saw the much-anticipated return of Premier League football to St. Mary’s. And wasn’t it, well, entirely underwhelming? You may be relieved to hear that I am going to leave the football post-mortem to Nigel Adkins and his team, who are infinitely more qualified than myself to carry it out. Instead I will focus on the thing that was most disappointing to witness as a fan in the stadium: the numerous empty seats and general lack of enthusiasm from the Southampton fans. Was this really our triumphant return to the “promised land”? Looking around the ground, one could have mistaken this for a January mid-table clash, not the first home game of a fresh Premier League era. The attendance of 29,604 was as curious as it was upsetting.

Anyone watching highlights of the game won’t have failed to notice the sparse turnout and Gary Lineker tweeted during the game: ‘Surprisingly poor turn out for Saints first game back in PL. Ground looks half empty. Any reason?’ While the ‘half empty’ claim is clearly exaggerated, the underlying point is certainly a fair one. How could Southampton FC possibly fail to sell out their first home game back in the Premier League, let alone leave the best part of 3,000 seats unfilled? Wigan’s meagre away following explains away a fair portion of this and accounted for the lack of atmosphere but gaps in the home sections were there for all to see. The point of this post isn’t to attack the Saints fans who didn’t go – I for one detest the pointless ‘plastics’ debate which has plagued the pre-season fan forums – the aim is instead to identify why so many stayed away for one of the biggest games in the club’s recent history.

Mind the Gap…

When it comes to attendance-related issues in football, a logical place to start is with the economics of supply and demand. Unfortunately the supply of Southampton-Wigan tickets clearly exceeded demand at the price implemented. Or, as Matthew Le Tissier rather more succinctly put it in response to Lineker: ‘Massive hike in ticket prices I think mate’. The fact that tickets for the Manchester United game next Sunday have already sold out unmistakably demonstrates that there is enough overall demand for Premier League football amongst Southampton fans. Unfortunately (although perhaps understandably), it seems there is not that same demand for Wigan Athletic. Logic and economics dictate that an adequate solution would be for the club to lower ticket prices for Category C games like Wigan and offset this by increasing the price of Category A tickets as people are clearly willing to pay to see the top teams. Currently, the spectrum of prices is fairly narrow, with the cheapest ticket to see Manchester United only £8 more than the cheapest ticket to Saints vs. Wigan. If fans are willing to pick and choose their games in this manner then make them pay for it. Whether this is a feasible solution remains to be seen.

However, I believe this debate should not stop at ticket prices. Southampton FC also needs to ask itself whether it is doing enough to actively draw fans in. Football clubs are ultimately businesses and in no other industry would a company expect customers to return purely through a sense of loyalty; why should Southampton FC be any different? It may be slightly unfair to suggest that the club does not put the effort in with regards to marketing and communications. In the last two years, the communications side of things has improved dramatically with engaging website and Saints Player content, as well as informative and up-to-date social media accounts. The problem is that much of this activity targets active Saints fans, like myself, who already go out of their way to take an interest in the club. While that is a worthwhile exercise, it could be argued that Saints sometimes stop short of attracting new customers and fans through their marketing efforts. Acquisition marketing should not be underestimated in the context of a football club.

Aside from the surprising attendance figure, there was a relatively subdued atmosphere and general negativity amongst those inside the stadium. Over the years (and the last couple in particular), I have come to see St Mary’s as a noisy and largely positive fortress for the club but there was something missing on Saturday. Once again, the lack of Wigan fans explains part of this as the Saints fans had nobody to bounce off and the forceful Northam End had large gaps due to the late return of Wigan’s allocation. More concerning was the sight of hundreds of fans all around the ground heading for the exits as Koné struck the visitors’ second and decisive goal. Even worse than that were the few boos that were scattered around the stands after the final whistle. In my previous post before the start of the season, I wrote about the patience that needs to be displayed by fans in the forthcoming campaign as we lose more games than we have been used to. Unfortunately, a small minority seems to think we should be winning every single Premier League game. While the result was certainly disappointing, I can assure you that if you were booing yesterday you’re in for an extremely long season. Adkins and his men have earned their shot at the Premier League and there is going to be a period of adjustment.

Overall, it seems that there is much to ponder for the Southampton FC team and fans alike. In the past, Adkins has talked about ‘controlling the controllables’. Frustratingly, there are very few controllables for football supporters. What we can do is fill our seating allocation and give our team as much support as we can muster. We need to make sure we take more control for the remainder of the season. Fortunately, one game doesn’t make a season and the next two matches represent perfect stages to start putting things right.

Simon