Top 10 worst transfers of this window

[Cheese on Toast]

http://m.ftbpro.com/posts/dan.morgan...-of-the-window Saw this article, noticed there's a saints player there... I can see what he's saying

Sorry if this has already been posted

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

My God, the guy does not know how to spell or capitalise.

Don't give a **** what he says.

I do agree however that he was massively over-priced.

[pingwing]

Completely out of depth isn't quite the same as being completely out of depth as a left winger...

He has looked terrible out there and at 7m is quite quickly becoming a massive joke, but hopefully someone will corner Adkins and have a decent word about the last time we had an obsession with playing players vastly out of position...

At least we didn't sign Buttner, and nearly as importantly there's a comment at the bottom questioning why Borini at £10m wasn't on the list! Very much a joke transfer so far...

[de-fence]

Fair to say if you offered Burnley their player back and we got our money back, the majority of our fans would take that now.

[madruss]

Ah yes, 3 games is of course the most accurate period over which a player's quality should be measured.

I for one wrote J-Rod off after 10 minutes

[VectisSaint]

LOL, I thought Jay Rod was transferred from Burnley, turns out it was from Burley. Burley play in Div 4 of the Haywards Bournemouth League.
http://www.burleyfc.co.uk/club/114283/Home
Explains a lot about him not seeming very good so far.
Even Mike Wilde no longer lives there.

[sammysaint]

I think in seriousness Jay Rod has been poor, however he has been out of position, he should of been CF when him and guly came on and may of won more air battles then guly vs rio and vidic.

Give him time, he was brought here to replace lambo, if NA plays him upfront more i think were see the best of Jay Rod.

[saint lard]

Jay Rodrigues will be a transfer of the same ilk as Bignall,Forte,the bloke from Tottenham,N'gusseun,the midfielder that recently went to Villa that we had.
he will join a faily indistinguished list.

Unless he actually plays in the correct position,but then he could still end up a flop,will we ever know?

[Elmore]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion but those writing off Rodriguez now will look like such ****s in the future.

[S-Clarke]

What a completely moronic article.

I mean, fair enough coming to these conclusions in December or later, but a week after the transfer window has closed?? Talk about fickle. What exactly is his conclusion on Christian Benteke based on...????

And I will still hold my opinion that Rodriguez will become a regular starter for us in time. I continue to be gobsmacked by how little time a player is given before being judged.

I mean Muayka got, what, 20mins? And he's already being labelled as out of his depth.

I imagine we'll get the same about Ramirez based on 60mins next week.

[The9]

"I don’t seen where he will play. I hope I’m wrong as I liked him at Burley"

Just about sums up the level of intelligence in that article. Why bother to read anything else ?

[adriansfc]

Does seem ridiculous to judge after 3 games, however good or bad the player does. And having to play the 2 best teams too. I'm sure he'll do well up front and other positions. He'll get plenty of games, Lambert is unlikely to start 40 matches. We have 2 big strong strikers, it's hardly overload is it. The 3 behind have a lot of quality competition with Lee, Lallana, Ramirez, Puncheon, Guly. I've honestly never seen so many good attacking options at the club. Defence looks poor, as does the keeper but can't have everything. Summed up by how difficult it was to even say what defenders you'd want. I'm sure money is and was there, but why spend it on Scott Dann? We'd still have a rubbish defence. Will just have to make do and hope targets are available in January. You defend as a team anyway, so they all need to improve.

Anyway 7m for Rodriguez doesn't seem that bad. I don't know why people ignore the key factor in prices, being whether the club want to sell and how much they need the money. Same way we'd need crazy fees to sell our best players, because it would need to be worth our while, factor in replacement costs and so on.

My main worry is the fixture list. It's vital to get those points on the board early, but the fixtures have put us in a terrible position. We've played very well twice and should have had points, but we've only messed up 1 fixture in reality, Wigan. Puts so much pressure on the Villa game which won't be easy. Can quickly become a psychological barrier if you don't get a point. Yet if we'd started with a few winnable games I'm sure we'd be doing very well. still, I'm sure they'll get going and do very well. Be interesting to see the relegation odds when we've played 4 lost 4, as I think they'll stay up easily to be honest. Funny how carried away people get, fans and opposition or neutrals, writing off teams and players early, when even if we lost the next couple, we'd probably be 1 win from safety. If fans and pundits knew anything then Wigan would have been relegated 7 times.

[Window Cleaner]

Hmmm, seems like the drunk that bloke you usually get on the last train from Waterloo who insists of giving you his concise opinion about anything and everything..

[adriansfc]

I was violently sick at Waterloo this morning, so sorry if any commuters on here saw that.

[southamptonfclegend]

he's played what, 2 and a bit games out of position, and he's being criticized he's a striker not a left winger.. not his fault he is being played out of position.

[The9]

he's played what, 2 and a bit games out of position, and he's being criticized he's a striker not a left winger.. not his fault he is being played out of position.

Not to mention he was pretty good at Man City even considering that, and the only player on the pitch who was able to make anything constructive out of our rubbish hoofing in the last 15 minutes on Sunday.

[scotty]

The author admits to being a stokie, what can you expect.

[Cheese on Toast]

The author admits to being a stokie, what can you expect.

A football article written by a rugby fan

[scotty]

A football article written by a rugby fan

[Badger]

A football article written by a rugby fan

Only marginally better than having aDirector of Football who used to be a Rugby Coach perhaps.

I had thought this might be an informed serious article, but no, it looks like some blog by a 14 year old spacktard doing his IT homework.

[Badger]

"I don’t seen where he will play. I hope I’m wrong as I liked him at Burley"

Just about sums up the level of intelligence in that article. Why bother to read anything else ?

Did he mean, but misspel,l the Horse Trials ?

[Dig Dig]

Clearly an Adkins choice and not a Cortese one. It's a shame.... We could have bought 7 Gulys with that money

[Village Saint]

I think in seriousness Jay Rod has been poor, however he has been out of position, he should of been CF when him and guly came on and may of won more air battles then guly vs rio and vidic.

Give him time, he was brought here to replace lambo, if NA plays him upfront more i think were see the best of Jay Rod.

If he really was bought to replace Lambo - which I really doubt - both he and whoever thought that are going to be VERY disappointed. I imagine he was bought to complement him and given time - three bits of games really aren't enough to make this judgement - I suspect he will be a success.

[shurlock]

Has to start down the middle against Sheff W - perfect opportunity to see what he can do.

[Dark Munster]

I remember most descriptions of Beattie when he first played for us included the words banjos and cows' arses. Look how he turned out. Hopefully the same with J-Rod.

[doggface]

He will do well in the central position. If we continue to use him on the left it will be a total waste of time and money.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Has to start down the middle against Sheff W - perfect opportunity to see what he can do.

Absolutely this - best post so far on this thread. Apart from this one of course.... [ahem]

[revolution saint]

Well the author of that piece has a point - Rodriguez hasn't looked like a 7m player so far. I know he's being played on the left of a front 3 (not really left wing) but surely that's the problem; when will he get a chance in a central position? On current form he doesn't look anywhere near as effective as Lambert so it'll be hard to displace him - have we spent that money on a cup player and back up to RL? Maybe in a couple of seasons time it'll be different but not at the moment.

I think Rodriguez is going to have to up his game in the position he's played so far as that's the one he'll get most opportunity to play in. The worrying thing from his point of view is Lallana looks better there and we still have Lee to come in. God knows what Ramirez will add to that equation. I don't know about anyone else but when we signed him I didn't think we'd be signing someone who'd either struggle to get into the team or make an impact. Course it's early days but so far it hasn't been promising.

[Mr X]

Question is will Adkins have the balls to drop j rod surely you get in the team on merit he's added nothing so far yet somehow I get the impression Adkins will stick with him and continue to play him out of position.

[Saint Charlie]

Question is will Adkins have the balls to drop j rod surely you get in the team on merit he's added nothing so far yet somehow I get the impression Adkins will stick with him and continue to play him out of position.

Errr...he did drop him for the Utd game.

Unfair to criticise the player until he gets to play in his prefered position.

[SuperSAINT]

Has to start down the middle against Sheff W - perfect opportunity to see what he can do.

Agree.

(Also we've thrown away our chances of winning the league cup by weakening our 2nd string by loaning out Dean & Billy)

[sadoldgit]

I remember people writing off Morgan after a few games. Give JRod time!

[Itchen_block4]

It's pretty obvious that Rodriguez has quality and it's not best used on the wing. Lambert isn't going to play 90 minutes of every game and Rodriguez will play the central role more as time goes by. In Lee and Mayuka, we have two forwards who are more ofay with wide roles, so we'll definately see Rodriguez more in the middle as the season goes on. In time, we'll be glad we signed him. Lambert has earnt his influence over the last 3 years and that sort of influence has to be earned however good you are. Rodriguez isn't going to fill Lambert's boots straight away. Influence is why players like Lampard, Gerrard, Giggs and Scholes still play at the top despite not being the players they used to be. Their teams just haven't been patient enough to let someone else earn the influence or they've been content not to do anything about an aging, influential player.

[revolution saint]

I remember people writing off Morgan after a few games. Give JRod time!

With all due respect I hate these spurious player / fan comparisons as it adds nothing to the debate. For every Morgan, Beattie comparison I could add Lee Todd and Stig Johansson - they looked rubbish initially and ended up being rubbish, it's an equally valid comparison. The difference between Rodriguez and Beattie / Morgan is that even in their first few games they showed quality whereas even his supporters would have to admit Rodriguez has been average. Now you can argue he's being played out of position which is true but what do you do about it? Drop Lambert in the hope it turns out well? That's not really a great idea. There only seems to be two viable options IMO and that's we either change our formation and play two up front, or Rodriguez needs to get a lot better in the left sided forward position, and a lot better quickly.

[sfc4prem]

With all due respect I hate these spurious player / fan comparisons as it adds nothing to the debate. For every Morgan, Beattie comparison I could add Lee Todd and Stig Johansson - they looked rubbish initially and ended up being rubbish, it's an equally valid comparison. The difference between Rodriguez and Beattie / Morgan is that even in their first few games they showed quality whereas even his supporters would have to admit Rodriguez has been average. Now you can argue he's being played out of position which is true but what do you do about it? Drop Lambert in the hope it turns out well? That's not really a great idea. There only seems to be two viable options IMO and that's we either change our formation and play two up front, or Rodriguez needs to get a lot better in the left sided forward position, and a lot better quickly.

I think writing a player off based on a couple of out-of-position performances, when previously for Burnley he has been one of the best strikers in the Championship at such a young age, is quite harsh.

Wait and see.

[Itchen_block4]

With all due respect I hate these spurious player / fan comparisons as it adds nothing to the debate. For every Morgan, Beattie comparison I could add Lee Todd and Stig Johansson - they looked rubbish initially and ended up being rubbish, it's an equally valid comparison. The difference between Rodriguez and Beattie / Morgan is that even in their first few games they showed quality whereas even his supporters would have to admit Rodriguez has been average. Now you can argue he's being played out of position which is true but what do you do about it? Drop Lambert in the hope it turns out well? That's not really a great idea. There only seems to be two viable options IMO and that's we either change our formation and play two up front, or Rodriguez needs to get a lot better in the left sided forward position, and a lot better quickly.

This is very narrow thinking tbh. Even if Lambert remains uninjured, he's a big bloke who won't last 90 minutes of every game, so alternative gameplans need to be worked on. He's not getting any younger either, so we'll need alternative plans for the longer term future. Nigel Adkins says "it's about the squad, not just the 11" in pretty well every interview he does and cliched as it is, he's absolutely right.

[revolution saint]

This is very narrow thinking tbh. Even if Lambert remains uninjured, he's a big bloke who won't last 90 minutes of every game, so alternative gameplans need to be worked on. He's not getting any younger either, so we'll need alternative plans for the longer term future. Nigel Adkins says "it's about the squad, not just the 11" in pretty well every interview he does and cliched as it is, he's absolutely right.

Great, so we've signed a 7M back up striker for Lambert? I know we needed cover but really? And if he were that good down the centre then why didn't NA start him there against City, or Wigan? Or play him there when he came on against Utd? So whilst you may think it's narrow thinking you may want to also have a word with Nigel.

[Dark Munster]

With all due respect I hate these spurious player / fan comparisons as it adds nothing to the debate. For every Morgan, Beattie comparison I could add Lee Todd and Stig Johansson - they looked rubbish initially and ended up being rubbish, it's an equally valid comparison. The difference between Rodriguez and Beattie / Morgan is that even in their first few games they showed quality whereas even his supporters would have to admit Rodriguez has been average. Now you can argue he's being played out of position which is true but what do you do about it? Drop Lambert in the hope it turns out well? That's not really a great idea. There only seems to be two viable options IMO and that's we either change our formation and play two up front, or Rodriguez needs to get a lot better in the left sided forward position, and a lot better quickly.

We paid the square root of f*ck all for Todd and Johansson (IIRC). So those two are spurious counter examples.

[doc oli]

i grew up in burley. I can't remember J Rod at Burley Primary School- I'm sure he would have been better than Robert Thornhill

[Colinjb]

i grew up in burley.

Surely something more suited to the Jeremy Kyle show...

[Window Cleaner]

I remember people writing off Morgan after a few games. Give JRod time!

Morgan will become a great player, it's his destiny because he has all the attributes. It was the perception that was wrong, probably fron a group of 65 year olds who know absolutely f*ck all about 21 st century football. viz Terry Paine apparently, but then my old Mum had a very low opinion of him as well, we were sort of neighbours and she was quite friendly with one of his exs. It's all about opinion.

[SaintJackoInHurworth]

Great to see the opinion given by Dan Morgan was based on having watched Saints play... NOT!! Does he not even realise that we are not playing in red and white stripes this season:

"hoping I would see him in a Stoke shirt, but in the other red a white stripes he has failed to impress."

[Wade Garrett]

I think writing a player off based on a couple of out-of-position performances, when previously for Burnley he has been one of the best strikers in the Championship at such a young age, is quite harsh.

Wait and see.

Good point. Training with better players will improve him over time as well. He is probably learning loads off of Rickie. With our new signings, he's not going to get much of a look-in playing on the left. For the time being I reckon he'll be Rickie's sub and a starter in cup games. Personally, I won't be writing him off yet, give him a season.

[Itchen_block4]

Great, so we've signed a 7M back up striker for Lambert? I know we needed cover but really? And if he were that good down the centre then why didn't NA start him there against City, or Wigan? Or play him there when he came on against Utd? So whilst you may think it's narrow thinking you may want to also have a word with Nigel.

Pretty much, were you expecting him to walk straight past Lambert and into the team? When players earn the sort of influence that Lambert has here, backing them up is a right pain in the arse. As a good player, he needs game time and on the wing he's had more of it because we didn't have the quality in depth out there. He's good on the ball and I'd rather him than De Ridder or Guly out there. He'll get his chance. If we wanted a winger, we'd have bought one instead. He'll get his big chance.

[corky morris]

The lad has not had a fair crack of the whip. Adkins has played him there. He is clearly a striker. I bet Lambert would look crap if you put him there too!!
I wish someone would ask Adkins why he paid £7m for a striker & plays him on the wing...................

[Itchen_block4]

The lad has not had a fair crack of the whip. Adkins has played him there. He is clearly a striker. I bet Lambert would look crap if you put him there too!!
I wish someone would ask Adkins why he paid £7m for a striker & plays him on the wing...................

Why spend £7m on anyone? Why buy someone to back up a player who is very talented, but won't last for every minute of every game?

Take Sam Hoskins in the U21s. He played most of pre-season on the wing. When Lee Barnard went to Bournemouth, Hoskins moved into the middle and started banging them in. Hoskins isn't a winger and neither is Rodriguez, but the reason they played on the wing is the same, because they add something to the team that no one else offered and theey have a big part to play over the course of the season. The system is fluid and wingers effectively become strikers. It might not be perfect, but it is how the apprentice (Rodriguez) is going to learn from the master (Lambert) in a match situation. Clumsy as it looks, there is method to the madness. Rodriguez wouldn't gain much warming the bench. You don't spend £7m on a player to neglect him either.

Back to the U21, Jake Sinclair is playing wide at the moment despite being more of a striker. Our plan will be for Sinclair to learn what he can from Hoskins until we have a reshuffle and move Sinclair into the middle. We want all of our forwards to learn from each other and for all of them to become better players. It would be great if such a system can work for the first team too.

[brmbrm]

Also he's only just 23, so would have peakied a few years ago. Obviously.

[david in sweden]

Why spend £7m on anyone? Why buy someone to back up a player who is very talented, but won't last for every minute of every game?

Take Sam Hoskins in the U21s. He played most of pre-season on the wing. When Lee Barnard went to Bournemouth, Hoskins moved into the middle and started banging them in. Hoskins isn't a winger and neither is Rodriguez, but the reason they played on the wing is the same, because they add something to the team that no one else offered and theey have a big part to play over the course of the season. The system is fluid and wingers effectively become strikers. It might not be perfect, but it is how the apprentice (Rodriguez) is going to learn from the master (Lambert) in a match situation. Clumsy as it looks, there is method to the madness. Rodriguez wouldn't gain much warming the bench. You don't spend £7m on a player to neglect him either.

Back to the U21, Jake Sinclair is playing wide at the moment despite being more of a striker. Our plan will be for Sinclair to learn what he can from Hoskins until we have a reshuffle and move Sinclair into the middle. We want all of our forwards to learn from each other and for all of them to become better players. It would be great if such a system can work for the first team too.

the truth of the matter is that regardless of how good a player maybe, he's not going to get regular games - if the incumbent is playing well...
Club history is loaded with " good players " who didn't get a look-in because the regular guy was playing well..and was just...a bit better.

Rodriguez time will come, he just has to be " up to it" ... when that call comes....meanwhile he has to get some game time.