saints_is_the_south

I think we'll see Osvaldo play up top, with Lambert dropping deeper. I think Rickie would be better in that position too, he's got the ability and vision to play there.

Great day. First half we were very much the better team, dictated the play & tempo of the game. We looked very well organised & disciplined. The full backs got forward well, Shaw in particular. Wanyama is an absolute beast, Mulumbu is no slouch but he just brushed him and the rest of their midfield with ease every time. The game became a bit scrappy in the 2nd half, and they had a bit more of the ball. Lovren (I think, could have been Fonte) made an absolutely world class tackle on Anelka to stop him going through on goal, had he got it wrong then it was a penalty and probable red card, so he timed it perfectly. Rickie wasn't having a great game, I was actually advocating taking him off and playing J Rod up top with Ramirez behind. Wouldn't have wanted any other player in world football taking that penalty though, Foster goes the right way but if he'd gone anything on it he'd probably have broken a finger. Still some fine tuning to be done, especially in the final 3rd where I thought we were lacking ideas quite a bit (this has been a problem since about 6 games to go last season), the signing of Osvaldo should help sort that out. Overall, a positive start but we weren't at our best and can & will get better as the season starts to take shape. If we want to finish in the top half or higher, then we need to be going to places like West Brom and picking up scrappy, hard fought wins like that.

Osvaldo has worn 17 at Espanyol before. That said, he also had the no 99 at Bologna!

Any videos taken of Lambo's pen from the crowd? Seen 1 so far, bit blurry.

+1. Too lazy to register myself.

Works out about £49K a week, assuming the €3m is a before tax figure. I thought Ramirez was in about £38.5K, so Osvaldo will be more and almost certainly become our highest paid player.

Newcastle supporting mate told me this summer that the talk up there is that if they are in the bottom half come Christmas, Pardew will be gone.

No bonus. €3m in wages per annum, €18m + performance related bonuses to Roma. I'm sure there'll be some sort of signing on few for him though, and we've probably had to make that pretty hefty too.

Great to see 4 academy products in the starting XI yesterday. Even with our superb academy, I don't mind admitting I was sceptical and doubtful that we'd ever fulfil NC's vision of half our first team made up of our own, but here we are just 2 players away from doing that. Chambers was superb yesterday, looked very comfortable and assured and if you didn't know any better you'd have thought he'd been playing at this level for ages. Shaw was just Shaw, very very good. JWP put in plenty of graft, but he needs to put some more practice in on his set pieces, thought most of them were pretty dreadful. Overall, there was many pleasing aspects of yesterday's win, but this was the best of the lot for me. Really proud.

http://www.romagiallorossa.it/featured/osvaldo-va-via-oggi-lannuncio/ Osvaldo announcement could come today.

You may add me to the Italy list if you like Have Sky Italia at home, watch every Roma game plus at least 2 other Serie A games per weekend. I can speak a bit of the language too. Absolutely love Italy tbh, quite obsessed with the country, have been for ages!

As I challenged Simon Peach to do, go and find reports of him causing problems at Espanyol under MP, or at Fiorentina or Bologna before that. I've tried, with no success. I support Roma, he's a great player and I'm convinced he'll be fine here under MP. The living atmosphere here in the Southampton area, compared to that of Rome, is well, incomparable. Really hope we pull It off. Could have stuff like this to enjoy...

I have absolutely no idea I'm afraid. I've just recently purchased Sky Italia so I was watching today and saw him reporting at Trigoria (Roma's training HQ). Judging by his twitter account (@angelomangiante) , he's very close to things at Roma, so I'd suggest maybe so. Giordano may have a better idea.

The news from Sky Italia comes from Angelo Mangiante who was reporting on Sky Sport 24 (italy's SSN) from Roma's training ground earlier today. He told of Pochettino calling Osvaldo this morning.

For anybody interested, Roma play Serie B side Ternana in a friendly tomorrow, kick off 17.30 UK time. Osvaldo has been called up for the game. Will be interesting to see how much of a part Osvaldo plays. And just as I was about to post.... @tancredipalmeri: Is it happening? Osvaldo is close to accept Southampton's bid according to Sky Italy Definitely will be very interesting now to see whether Osvaldo is involved with Roma!

No, because if Roma sell Osvaldo then they will not sell Lamela (or Pjanic).

http://www.football-italia.net/38413/osvaldo-no-saints-yes-spurs

They have a friendly tomorrow. Serie A begins next weekend.

I've just been watching Sky Sport 24 (Italy's version of SSN) and what has been posted above was reported live by one of their guys from Roma's training ground. There is interest from Spurs, but nowhere near as strong as Saints and Pochettino has been in contact with Osvaldo in the last few hours attempting to convince him to come here. Osvaldo is still in Rome, and trained this morning.

http://www.romanews.us/?p=14342

I think this is going to happen. Just got a hunch about it.

Osvaldo piece of s**t.

Le offerte non mancano. Dall’Inghilterra, dalla Germania. Con la Roma sullo sfondo. Pablo Daniel Osvaldo e il futuro, tutto da decidere. L’attaccante giallorosso incontrerà il suo entourage nelle prossime ore, il Southampton resta fiducioso. Wolfsburg e Tottenham però non demordono, col club tedesco che nelle prossime ore potrebbe presentare una nuova proposta. Gli Spurs invece, con la cessione di Bale, avrebbero i soldi necessari per tentare l’assalto decisivo. Osvaldo attende e riflette. Tra Italia, Germania e Inghilterra. http://www.gianlucadimarzio.com/calciomercato/osvaldo-il-southampton-e-fiducioso-ma-resistono-wolfsburg-e-tottenham/ Osvaldo will meet with his entourage in the next few hours to decide on his next destination. Saints are confident, but competition remains from Wolfsburg and Spurs.

Could I make a request? Just post the article in Italian, rather than putting it through a gash translator. There are a few posters on here who speak decent enough Italian (myself included), some fluent (not me!) that can translate far better!

Spurs won't sign Osvaldo now they've signed Soldado. They'll be meeting for Lamela, although if Sabatini tries selling him then I'd advise him not to return to Rome.