Rodriguez Joins WBA - Official

The most miserable looking player when he played last season out of the lot of them. Clearly wanted out and looks like we got a decent deal.

Now he's gone if feel I can say it was Jay that I met in Ibiza and had a conversation with, He came across as gutted as we were the way his season went , when I told him I hadn't renewed my season ticket for the first time in ages and neither has a lot of people he said he was genuinely sorry to hear that but wasn't surprised at the same time. I wish him well and hope he can rediscover his old form at Wba !

Thanks for the memories, Jay! Sad to see him go but we've done an incredible bit of business for someone who's never looked like getting back to his best. Genuinely wish him all the best.

Scored on his arse. Sad to see him go.

Hopefully a start on clearing out the dead wood from a squad that has got bloated with mediocrity.

At his best before the injury he had great feet, quick turn of speed and an eye for goal. Sadly much of that has gone. Also I think Gabby is a similar style of player but younger and, fingers crossed, not crocked. I am genuinely shocked at the fee paid as, given the gamble on fitness, I would have expected half of that fee. Good deal Les

Good luck to the guy. Always gave his all for us. Towards the end of last season he looked like he was starting to look good again.

Hopefully the club will be announcing some proven attacking players soon or it's going to be groundhog day again this summer.

Good luck to Jay

I'd say this is an amazing piece of business by Saints. £12m for a player who looks like he may never fully recover from his injury is absurd.

Good player pre injury, was off to Spurs before he snapped his leg. Nowhere near the same player now though and £12 million is great money.

Good for both sides. Jay gets another shot in the PL, and we open a spot for Gallagher. Previous years aside, I believe Gallagher can equal or beat JayRod's production in 2017.

Sad to see him go, he was so exciting to watch at times. But, one of those transfers where it seems that everyone is a winner.

I do also wonder if Puel was 'encouraged' to play Rodriguez to keep him in the shop window, and show that he was still a Premier League player. When he popped up with a few goals, especially the wonder strike against Bournemouth I bet the directors were rubbing their hands. It was a risk, as it could equally have demonstrated to potential suitors that he was no longer up to it (e.g. I blame Rodriguez for not seeing us score in the San Siro, boo!), but in the end a risk that paid off.

Big mistake. Claude's poor man management clearly demotivated the lad. The club should've done more to support him and given him some time under the new manager. I guarantee he'll be back to haunt us. I can't help but feel this is a poor decision. Maybe I just don't like seeing our players go to similar clubs who are direct competition.

The most miserable looking player when he played last season out of the lot of them. Clearly wanted out and looks like we got a decent deal.

Hardly surprising when you look at how Puel treated him.

Hardly surprising when you look at how Puel treated him.

Yeah I agree, even though he was shiete he should have played every game

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£12M is incredible for a player who looked all season as though he had not fully recovered from his injury.

I will always remember the great goal at Fulham. Beyond that ,unfortunately its a series of missed chances like the many in the first half at Milan.

Big mistake. Claude's poor man management clearly demotivated the lad. The club should've done more to support him and given him some time under the new manager. I guarantee he'll be back to haunt us. I can't help but feel this is a poor decision. Maybe I just don't like seeing our players go to similar clubs who are direct competition.

Can I ask when you think the club have ever made a good decision as you come across as doing nothing but criticise the board/management.

Big mistake. Claude's poor man management clearly demotivated the lad. The club should've done more to support him and given him some time under the new manager. I guarantee he'll be back to haunt us. I can't help but feel this is a poor decision. Maybe I just don't like seeing our players go to similar clubs who are direct competition.

Now there's a surprise.

Yeah I agree, even though he was shiete he should have played every game

 

 

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Never understood why we offered him a new contract when we did, but now I know, it was to ensure we protected our investment and allow us to recoup the transfer fee at some point. Very good decision. The extra wages spent as part of the contract now are recouped.

Exactly the way I see it as well, Jay probably gave us one good season. You can't compensate for injury, had to support the player, which we did. At the end of the day, we probably break even when you take into account the wages - good business all round really. Hope Jay goes on to do well, but in a Pulis 'lump it long and see' team, could find he struggles and could easily get injured again.

Big mistake. Claude's poor man management clearly demotivated the lad. The club should've done more to support him and given him some time under the new manager. I guarantee he'll be back to haunt us. I can't help but feel this is a poor decision. Maybe I just don't like seeing our players go to similar clubs who are direct competition.

No, you're just a fu_cking moron.

I've never seen JRod and james Morrison of WBA in the same room

Maybe I just don't like seeing our players go to similar clubs who are direct competition.

Similar but different; 8th, 17th, 13th, 14th, 10th - 14th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 8th.

Sad to see him go , don't blame him . A season under Puel was the final nail in the coffin

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Good player for us until injury, good bit of business by the club - Good luck genuinely to Jay and thanks....except the days when we play WBA!

Would rather we sold Long and kept Jay Rod, Jay is 2 years younger and able to play out wide or down the middle and Long is better down the middle which I think will see him struggle for playing time as Austin and Gabba will be the main strikers.

Long's defensive ability in the wide positions is one of the reasons we signed him in the first place. He's ideal in away games where you don't want to overcommit but want a pacy player for counterattacks - it would admittedly be better if he could finish more often.

I do also wonder if Puel was 'encouraged' to play Rodriguez to keep him in the shop window, and show that he was still a Premier League player. When he popped up with a few goals, especially the wonder strike against Bournemouth I bet the directors were rubbing their hands. It was a risk, as it could equally have demonstrated to potential suitors that he was no longer up to it (e.g. I blame Rodriguez for not seeing us score in the San Siro, boo!), but in the end a risk that paid off.

He played against Bournemouth because he was in rotation with Long. With Austin going off injured against Be'er Sheva, they alternated the following games against Boro, Stoke and Bournemouth, with Long playing midweek and Rodriguez weekends. Gabbiadini hadn't been signed yet and Austin remained injured.

No suggestion Rodriguez was picked on anything other than merit. Also, if the only reason to pick Rodriguez was to encourage people to buy him, why didn't we sell him when the winter transfer window opened 2 weeks after his goals at Bournemouth? Presumably because we knew if we waited until the summer there would be enough tv-deal money washing around that someone would pay more than we got for him due to the inflated market.

Jrod is the only striker who scored outside the box last season. We are very easily to be defensed so long as the other side can cut any supply to Austin or Gabba inside the box. It is not difficult to do so as we can only see Redmond and Boufal running and losing the ball. Only Betrand in the team can pass a ball into the box. Our goal drought will continue I am afraid.

Jrod is the only striker who scored outside the box last season. We are very easily to be defensed so long as the other side can cut any supply to Austin or Gabba inside the box. It is not difficult to do so as we can only see Redmond and Boufal running and losing the ball. Only Bertrand in the team can pass a ball into the box. Our goal drought will continue I am afraid.

You say "striker", but Boufal did it against Sunderland in the EFL Cup. And against Boro in the League. And Clasie did so against West Brom too.

Given that when we have one striker his job is basically to be nearer the goal than anyone else, the chances of him being outside the box and shooting isn't huge in the first place.

Luckily we have stats to identify whether we have strikers who even bother to take shots from outside the box... https://public.tableau.com/profile/paul.riley#!/vizhome/PremierLeagueShotDashboard2016-17/PLShotDashboard2016-17

The quick summary of that is over the course of the entire 16/17 season:

Austin took 6 shots from outside the box (3 off target, 2 saved, 1 blocked) - and about 28 from inside the box, it's a little difficult to see exactly due to the clustering.

Gabbiadini took 4 shots from outside the box (3 blocked, 1 off target) - and about 25 from inside.

Long took 8 (4 saved, 3 blocked, 1 off target) - and it's only when you see the SWATHES of chances missed from inside the box you realise how bad his finishing was.

Rodriguez took 7 (2 goals, 3 saved, 2 blocked) - about 25 from inside.

To illustrate the point further, Redmond isn't a striker, but over the season he took more outside the box shots than the strikers above in total, and Steven Davis, and even Ryan Bertrand took more shots from outside the box than any one striker.

Redmond took 27 (11 off target, 10 saved, 6 blocked)

Bertrand took 11 (5 off target, 3 saved, 3 blocked).

Davis took 14 (9 off target, 3 blocked, 2 saved)

Now it might be the case that we could ask for a better goal return from our NON-strikers, but the low number of shots generally taken from outside the box by strikers certainly doesn't suggest it's something we should be particularly bothered about.

Strikers hitting shots from distance isn't anything like as important as them having chances from inside it to begin with, due to the low likelihood of scoring a goal from those shots, and is even less important when you consider how few of those shots they actually take.

So basically, it doesn't matter than Rodriguez is the only striker who scored from outside the box last season, and lone strikers should concentrate on scoring from inside the box.

Typical Les Reed. Already making a net profit in the transfer window and we haven't even sold any of our best players yet.

In all seriousness, an incredible fee for a player who has sadly lost it. And our fans moan that we lack ambiton.

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Out of interest would you rather have: Defoe, King, Wilson, Afobe or Gabbi, Austin, Long, Gallagher?

Think probably Bournemouth edge in terms of striker options which is interesting.

Out of interest would you rather have: Defoe, King, Wilson, Afobe or Gabbi, Austin, Long, Gallagher?

 

Think probably Bournemouth edge in terms of striker options which is interesting.

I doubt King will be there when the season starts.

I wish we were Bournemouth.

Out of interest would you rather have: Defoe, King, Wilson, Afobe or Gabbi, Austin, Long, Gallagher?

 

Think probably Bournemouth edge in terms of striker options which is interesting.

Ancient, one-season wonder, perma-crock, Championship striker.

Our options might not be incredible, but there's nothing going on in Bournemouth to be envious about. Except nice beaches.

I wish we were Bournemouth.

Well they start with a 30 goal head start cos that is what Defoe guarantees you

Good luck to Jay but needed to move on to get first team football on a regular basis. He is happy, WBA are happy and we are happy. Magic!

Out of interest would you rather have: Defoe, King, Wilson, Afobe or Gabbi, Austin, Long, Gallagher?

 

Think probably Bournemouth edge in terms of striker options which is interesting.

Gabbiadini is better then all of them and if you only play 1 up top that's all that matters.

Big mistake. Claude's poor man management clearly demotivated the lad. The club should've done more to support him and given him some time under the new manager. I guarantee he'll be back to haunt us. I can't help but feel this is a poor decision. Maybe I just don't like seeing our players go to similar clubs who are direct competition.

What's happening is excuse for being crap Pre-Puel?

Agree with most comments on here. He was good for a few seasons but never looked back to his best.

Although apparently I'm doing him a dis-service. Our player liason guy, Hugo Schekter, tweeted about Jay yesterday. He said he's one of the nicest guys in football - and a true Saints legend.

Hmm you might want to lay off the fizzy pop Hugo. He was a lot of things but he certainly is not a true Saints legend.

Well they start with a 30 goal head start cos that is what Defoe guarantees you

While he may well score a few, I do love this guarantee that seems to be in place.

While he may well score a few, I do love this guarantee that seems to be in place.

The guarantee posted by nobody ever?

Good luck to Jay at WBA. Was never the same after that horrible injury at Man City - can still visualise it now - and was such a shame as he was awesome in 2013/14. Everyone has mentioned the Fulham goal and rightly so but no-one has mentioned the equaliser at Newcastle. Look it up on You Tube, it was a counter attack with the recorder stuck on X8 fast forward. The Bournemouth and Leicester games gave us hope that the old Jay might be returning but the negative tactics finished him and all of the strikers off for the season including even Gabi. However, you could see Jay in some games looking for acceleration to get away from defenders which was deserting him a lot of the time in some games, hence why he had to take earlier shots. Will still do a job but not one necessarily which Pellegrino needs but Pulis might. I think Jay just needs to find what type of forward he is again - not suited to lone striker necessarily without the midfield support (which was dreadful here last term) but harder too see him bombing in off the left as he did for Poch or playing on the shoulder. Perhaps he needed a new environment and if he does score 2 or 3 I hope some of the plums on here don't castigate Saints.

While he may well score a few, I do love this guarantee that seems to be in place.

Have a feeling whelk's post was a sarcastic one...

I know that (or presumed it was not least because of the 30 goal bit), but I was tapping away on my mobile while having a bath, so am too old to be able to write longish posts. The radio commentators (yes, I ask why I bother listening to talkSport) were going on about him guaranteeing goals, and that was what I was eluding to.

I know that (or presumed it was not least because of the 30 goal bit), but I was tapping away on my mobile while having a bath, so am too old to be able to write longish posts. The radio commentators (yes, I ask why I bother listening to talkSport) were going on about him guaranteeing goals, and that was what I was eluding to.

Ah ok, fair enough. I'd also question who he is going to replace in the side, because it's one thing buying a 15-goal striker when the one thing you've been missing is someone to put the ball in the net, but if he's going to play instead of King, you've bought a 15-goal striker to replace a... 16-goal striker.

Good Luck to Jrod. Did well for us overall.

This is a good move for him.

A good move for us.

WBA have had a shocker though.

Ah ok, fair enough. I'd also question who he is going to replace in the side, because it's one thing buying a 15-goal striker when the one thing you've been missing is someone to put the ball in the net, but if he's going to play instead of King, you've bought a 15-goal striker to replace a... 16-goal striker.

That rather depends if King is going to be there next season. Reports of Spurs sniffing around, although today....https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/3933171/tottenham-transfer-news-josh-king-harry-kane-bournemouth-everton/ but then he might well be 2nd fiddle at B'mouth.

I'm sad to see him go but it's undoubtedly the best for both the club and the player.

Assuming he stays fit, I think he will be a cracking signing for Albion. They are the perfect fit for him in my opinion, just what he needs to get his career back on track.

Equally I'm looking forward to seeing how well Sam Gallagher fits in next season.

Sad to see him go but I don't think he was going to recapture his form from before the injury.

Good luck to JRod. So unlucky with his injury while in the form of his life. As a player that thrived on his pace he is now a shadow of that unfortunately.

If we are in for Iheanacho and this has paid for half of him its great business in our part...IF...