Guly's Firewalk Straight After his Hat-trick
The much drawn out Victor Wanyama saga came to an end and we
actually signed him which to me was a bit of a surprise as it appeared dead in
the water with greedy agents having pissed off The Don. There were rumours of the player sacking his
agent and I think we can safely assume that a compromise was reached and the
player signed on the dotted line. I
don’t think that The Don was going to be fucked about but I also think that the
lack of a credible bid from elsewhere played a factor in the agent climbing
down. After the transfer, it has rumbled
on with the Cardiff Chairman mouthing off that Celtic went back on a deal that
he had agreed and that the player wanted to come to them. Makes you wonder how they knew what Victor
wanted when they wouldn’t have had permission to speak to him, having not
agreed a fee with Celtic. Maybe it got
lost in a bit of Thai-Welsh-Scottish translation. Various figures in Scottish football have had
their say, saying that he’s shite and not worth the money whilst anyone with a
Celtic affiliation, once they stopped engaging in some “my club is bigger than
your club” willy waving contest, seems to think he’s a powerhouse midfielder
who will only get better and better. I’d
be surprised if he doesn’t take a while to get up to speed as he’d only had 2
years in Scotland
and in the 2nd of those, Rangers weren’t about so the standard of
League football wasn’t great. A quick
look at some of his Champions League performances though, makes you see why
we’ve taking a £12million punt on him.
The biggest surprise of all of this is of course, Neil Lennon being nice
about us, calling us a good and progressive club.
Victor jetted out to Spain to joining the rest of the
Saints squad on a pre-season training camp.
This is the first one under Mauricio Pochettino and his team and you can
safely guess that it’ll be hard work.
All the players were there at the start aside from Maya Yoshida and
Gaston Ramirez who had been to the Confederations Cup. Maya had been knocked out in the first round
and Gaston had been a sub aside from one start against World Football Heavyweight
Tahiti which lasted his usual 60 minutes.
It struck me straight away that Gaston is the player who could most
benefit from a tough pre-season as opposed to a rest, so why wasn’t he out
there. He had the last 3 games of last
season off after all.
Still, we didn’t really need him for the matches we played
out there against Llagostera who are Spanish Div 3 and Palamos who are a
Division further down. A 2-1 win with a
J-Rod brace and an 8-0 with goals from just about everybody including a
hat-trick from Guly do Prado in which the first and third goal were apparently
10 minutes apart. Now, does this say
that Guly is going to be awesome this season or does it say that the opposition
were so bad that even the England
women’s side could have beaten them? As
an aside – I watched most of their games in Euro 2013 – absolute rubbish!
The pre-season friendlies and lots of footage from the
training ground and team building events have been brought to us all by the
Saints Media team who have to be congratulated on a great job. It’s always nice to see behind the scenes and
see the players having a laugh as well as working bloody hard. It all appears to be going rather well and
gives you a bit of information about what’s going on. For example, with Clyne being our only senior
right-back with Butters and Frazer moving on, would we sign another? The answer to that one appears to now be that
Calum Chambers is the back-up which is also good from the point of view of
seeing another youngster step up. Other
highlights have been the team bonding firewalk which was very amusing,
especially the Little African Bloke walking across the burning coals holding an
arrow like a spear - all very politically incorrect but very funny. If it's going to make Guly score a hat-trick then they should et light to him more often. Then there was King Artur in a training game,
playing up front, looking about 4 stone lighter than when we signed him and
smashing in two excellent goals whilst Maya Yoshida totally failed to mark him.
Meanwhile, back in Southampton, the training complex at
Staplewood is taking shape and a couple of Skate Builders thought it would be
hilarious to put a shirt in the dry lining of a wall and post a video of them
doing it on You Tube, guaranteeing them both hero status down the shabby end of
the M27 and a P45 and greatly reducing the area in which they can work in the
future as I can’t imagine anyone in a SO post code employing them for a
while. Well done. Fear not though Saints fans, just be sure to
pass the story down to your grandchildren (even if they haven’t been born yet) cos
they may grow up to be builders who somewhen in the next century, may get to install
a new portacabin on Pompey’s new training ground. Whilst we, and a majority of other teams are
away on pre-season, the hacks at home have little to write about and so it’s
silly season. Sir Rickie Lambert is
moving to Reading apparently and here’s how this one became gospel.
Editor: That was a
bit of a shock, Grant Holt moving from Norwich
to recently relegated Wigan
Hack: Yeah, he used to play at Rochdale
with Rickie Lambert didn’t he?
Editor: Yeah, Fat Boy Lambert might go down a division as
well. He’ll never be any good in the
Prem.
Tea Boy: What? He was the top scoring Englishman in the
Premier League last year. Why would they
sell him?
Editor and Hack: Stick to making tea you little git
Hack: Didn’t score many after that geezer who don’t speak
English came in. Anyway...
Editor: Reading
have just been relegated..... and QPR – my boy ‘Arry likes a deal
Hack: yeah but Reading are managed by
that Atkins bloke
Editor: Yeah,
Atkins....
Hack: ... who used to
manage
Editor: SOUTHAMPTON !!! Brilliant.
Saints have been linked to that Osvaldo bloke who is never going to join
them but that don’t matter, they’re after a striker for sure
Hack: Indeed they are Guv, if Osvaldo does join though,
Saints will want to sell Lambert.
Editor: To Reading – print that and
print it with made up “inside sources” quotes.
I want it on my desk by 8am.
Tea Boy: Saints have
just given him a new contract so it’s all not really logical is it?
Editor: You’re
fired..... get out you little git!
Hack: Guv.... Does
your tea taste of piss?
There have been other rumours which have a bit more
credibility, such as Gaston Ramirez being wanted by Italian clubs. Again, it’s an easy link to make but again, I
just can’t see it at the moment. If
however, we sign rumoured target Ever Banega, then I could see Gaston being
offloaded as we have a lot of attacking midfielders without any of them having
been outstanding or being automatic picks for a starting XI. Punch,
Adam, J-Rod, Gaston – not to mention Steve Davis and JWP and youngster
Lloyd Isgrove. I feel that there will be
an attacking midfield arrival but it will be a winger, rather than a No 10 and
probably a name we’ve not heard yet.
Trust The Don.
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