It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that Mauricio Pochetinno doesn't really fancy Gaston Ramirez as a player, a move in the January transfer window now seems likely.
Gaston Ramirez's agent has been widely quoted in the press over the past few days about his client's thoughts on Saints " He likes the Chairman but doesn't get on with the manager" has been the general gist of the quotes.
All standard stuff from a players agent, when the player is looking for a move and the agent is looking to alert other clubs that he might be available, of course its highly probably that the agent has been talking to prospective buyers already and discussing terms, but given that this is not permitted, it is vital that he gets things out in the open a bit so he can claim total surprise when Napoli/Inter Milan/Portsmouth etc all make an enquiry about his client.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing,but when Ramirez signed last year, I did question just exactly why we were buying him, initially it was quoted that he was a winger and that made sense, but from his first game it was clear that he was a playmaker in the centre of the park and not the speedy winger that we required.
That created a problem, a play maker for Saints was a luxury that we could rarely afford in a season where we would spend most of it in the bottom quarter, this meant that in most of our games we would spend time on the back foot, what was needed in midfield was work rate not guile, as the season progressed and Gaston found himself no longer an automatic choice in the starting line up, results improved as our central pairing of Schneiderlin and Cork excelled, ably supported by Steven Davis.
Ramirez main problem though when he did play in the centre was finding someone to pass to, he clearly had an eye for a pass and you felt he could split a defence, problem was though this was not the way Saints were playing, Rickie Lambert is not a channel runner, he hasn't the pace to latch on to through balls, hold off a defender and slot it home past the keeper, therefore Ramirez passing skills were somewhat redundant, all he could reaaly do was pass it sideways and to be blunt Davis was as good at laying off a 20 yard simple pass as him but had far better work rate.
Gaston Ramirez is a superb player, he will go on to have a great career in the game, of that Im sure, but in regard to Saints he has found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, not once but twice.
At the start of last season Ramirez arrived to a big fanfare, the club wanted a marquee signing, a statement of intent, whoever was responsible for the transfer policy and new lone striker formation (and it certainly wasn't Nigel Adkins) had not really thought this one through, Ramirez found himself in a team that couldn't utilise his talents.
The arrival of Mauricio Pochetinno might have heralded a new start for Gaston, but the Argentinian's game plan called for work rate and a high tempo pressing game and that is just not Ramirez in any way shape or form.
If the Uruaguyan had arrived say at the end of this season it might truly have been a different story, if he had come into a side established in the Premier and looking to kick on it could have been a different story, especially with a change in style of the lone striker, Jar Rodriguez and Osvaldo would undoubtably be better for Ramirez than Rickie Lambert is as a target for his passing ability, for no other reason that they are better suited to run the channels and get on the end of a defence splitting pass.
Perhaps Saints hoped that Mayuka would be a perfect foil for Ramirez, perhaps they hoped that Mayuka's pace would be perfect to get on the end of a through ball, there was only one flaw, Mayuka didn't have a clue about running channel's or how to peel off a defender, put bluntly he isn't of the standard required in the Premier league
Its hard to see a happy ending to this story apart from a parting of the ways, whether we will get anything like our money back on Gaston is doubtful, his stock isn't high having started less than half of the league games he could have and most of those were over 9 months ago now, add to that, his wages to entice him to St Mary's will be a big stumbling block to a potential buyer, only just over a year into a long contract, either he will have to take a big wage drop or Saints will have to lose big money on the fee to enable the buying club to build in a lump sum payment to the player.
The only chink of light for Ramirez to be a success at Saints is that if he goes out on loan he might return to the club next season to a different situation, if we have been successful this season then it could mean a bigger role for Gaston, but the only way I can see that is if the lone striker role is occupied by someone who can benefit from his passing ability.
Good luck to Gaston Ramirez whatever happens, he is clearly a class act and as I say in another time he could have been a roaring success.