It looked odds on that when Gaston Ramirez finally came off the Saints payroll in July he would join Middlesbrough, but no it seems there are complications.

Gaston Ramirez has been a raging success up on Teeside for Middlesbrough and it looked certain that Boro would sign him on a free transfer when he leaves Saints in July, but if the North East club thought this would be all plain sailing they were wrong as it now appears that rather than being a free signing, if they want Ramirez then they are going to have to buy him out of a pre contract agreement that he signed with Penarol in his native Uruguay.

What had seemed a formality is now tied up in red tape with his representatives trying to play Boro off against Penarol.

Whether Boro knew about this pre contract deal is unsure, but it appears that they didn't and assumed that with him being so successful and seemingly enjoying his time on Teeside that they would be in the driving seat.

That is not the case and Ramirez's agents seem to be quoting £5 million to get out of the Penarol deal, although whether that would all go to the Uruguayan club is doubtful, Boro are also upset that whilt on one hand they were told Ramirez was keen to join them, on the other he was being touted to other Premier League clubs not to mention Penarol.

So seemingly Boro are not going to get involved in an auction for the player and help his agents push up not only his wages but their fees, with no real focus on what would best for Ramirez career.

From a Saints perspective they are not really affected, thy wil have to pay Ramirez till July when he officially becomes a free agent and rue the day when he was brought to the club as former Chairman Nicola Cortese's "marquee" signing, a folly that has cost the club somewhere north of £30 million.

Photo: Action Images

Jesus_02 added 23:56 - May 30 After all this time there is still space for a Cortese dig! We should have probably stayed in L1 and kept that £30m or was it £40m? surely we paid Borough and Hull to play him as well as his wages... what was he being paid again, 90k a week (rumored) I imagine that Cortese would have included a guaranteed 1st team appearance clause that meant that we now owe Osvaldo the souls of the academy players. No wonder we where relegated that year Thank goodness for Les , Moneyball and the sell everybody we can stratagy

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SaintNick added 10:42 - May 31 There is always time for a Cortese dig, just because we got promoted does not mean that he was doing his job right
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