According to media reports Saints are ready to cash in on Rickie Lambert in the January transfer window.
When I suggested back in the summer that any big money signing for a striker would signal the beginning of the end for Rickie Lambert's career at St Mary's, I was shouted down somewhat and told that I was being negative and that both would be accommodated in the same team.
Now though national media are reporting that Saints will be willing to cash in on Rickie whilst he still has a re sale value, that Mauricio Pochettino is willing to sanction the departure of Lambert for tactical reasons, in that he is a manager who only plays one striker in his formations and that having spent big money on Osvaldo it is the Italian International who the manager sees as the long term option.
Although this is only hearsay at the moment, the way the football media works, someone somewhere is leaking stories, whether its coming from Lambert's side or from the Club is open to debate. On one hand Lambert will probably feel his place is under threat and will want to alert other club's to the fact he might be amiable to a move in January, more so now because of his hopes of travelling to Brazil with England for the World Cup, from the Club's point of view, they will know that Lambert is very popular amongst the fans and having tried playing both together and it not working so far, they will want to lay the foundations for the fans accepting of the move early, you only need to look at some of the phrases in the media reports to draw the conclusion that it might well be coming from them, sentences like
"Goal understands that Pochettino is ready to offload Lambert for tactical reasons, amid doubts as to whether the centre-forward has the mobility and movement to flourish in his system."
These seem to be well positioned leaks aimed at creating a school of thought within the fan base, just as Nigel Adkins went from being the most popular manager in Saints recent history to being considered a failure in the Premier league by some due to tactical ineptitude, something which certainly hadn't been the case a day earlier at Stamford Bridge
In this sense it seems to be working, already some supporters are saying that its a natural progression and that Lambert will be turning 32 in February so is heading towards his sell by date.
As mentioned earlier, all of this is stuff that I have been suggesting might happen should we sign a new striker, since the summer, playing them together has been tried and to be brutal it hasn't benefited the team or indeed either player, now Saints will be professional about the situation and to be frank brutal, taking emotion out of it and the great love all Saints fans have for Rickie, if you are going to play a system where you only have a lone striker and the choice is between a player who is about to turn 32 and a younger man who you have paid a club record fee for there is only going to be one answer, otherwise you wouldn't have bothered paying all that money in the first place, it is not rocket science.
When Lambert was capped by Engalnd and scored, I said then it altered the game plan, if he had not been capped by England then perhaps Saints could have accommodated both with Rickie happy to play a supporting role, but with the chance to go to Brazil Rickie's ambitions have changed, perhaps he will go to Brazil with England perhaps he wont, but he will know he has only one shot at a World Cup and to do that he needs to be first choice at a club in the Premier and scoring goals, it could be that he wont be able to have that with Saints.
It seems according to the press its only a question of when Rickie is dropped rather than if, Saturday is perhaps a pivotal moment for Rickie in his Saints career, we could still see both him and Osvaldo selected against Crystal Palace, but if both fire blanks again then Pochettino will have to make a decision, however as has been proved in the past, Rickie keeps on re writing the history books, he wont make it easy for his manager to drop him, his problem there though is that it certainly wont be Osvaldo dropped and its hard for Rickie to make an impression in a formation that doesn't see him as the target man 100% of the time.