Three years after he left Italy for Southampton, his old club Bologna are interested in bringing him back.

Gaston Ramirez has had a torrid time in England, two unproductive seasons at Saints followed by a loan spell at Hull City that wasn't exactly seeing him feature highly in the player of the year awards, but now there could be a lifeline.

In fairness to Ramirez, unlike his fellow marque signing Osvaldo his failure has not been down to his attitude or anything else, for the main part he has done nothing much wrong and has just got his head down and tried to play football when given the opportunity.

His problem has been that from the start he was a fish out of water, when he joined his playing style did not suit that of Saints, he was a passer of the ball, a man who could thread through balls into the channels and create chances, but with Rickie lambert as lone striker not being that kind of player, Ramirez's talents were always going to be wasted.

In effect he was a signing based on the then Chairman's desire to make a big money signing, rather than being a player that the team needed.

Of course being a decent player there would always be flashes of brilliance from Gaston, but the reality would always be that unless Saints changed their style and used pace up front rather than playing into a target man he was not going to shine.

Now it seems Bologna may take him back and give him a chance to kick start his career again, the newly promoted Serie A side are being linked with a move for their former player who scored 15 goals in his 60 appearances for the club in his first spell.

The stumbling block could be both transfer fee and wages, Ramirez is on a hefty salary and even though there only is a year left on his contract could face a hefty drop if he was to move back to Bologna.

That being the case it could be a case of another loan spell and as with his time at Hull, Saints having to keep paying him his full entitlement with Bologna making a contribution.

If this is the case it will have been an expensive signing for Saints and when you throw in his wages bonus's and other incidentals such as National Insurance and Pension payments could see the cost to the club of double his initial £12 million transfer fee.

Given that he has started 23 Premier Games with another 22 as sub scoring 6 times, with another 4(1) cup games scoring twice, his 50 appearances for the club could cost us in excess of £500k per game, that is a large amount for even a marque signing.

AS I say I don't blame Ramirez though, he has tried his best, it is just a shame it hasn't worked out.

Photo: Action Images

ped added 13:55 - Jun 11 "Of course being a decent player there would always be flashes of brilliance from Gaston, but the reality would always be that unless Saints changed their style and used pace up front rather than playing into a target man he was not going to shine" Have Saints not changed their style and now play with pace upfront? Might Gaston not be worth another try!
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JDawg added 14:06 - Jun 11 Ped - That's exactly what I thought when I read that. Could be worth a punt in preseason and if we've got to pay his wages anyway why not keep him as a squad player?
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BoondockSaint added 16:18 - Jun 11 He's always had a great attitude. (OK, he did have a stupid sending off at Hull). He's never whinged and tried his best when he got a chance. When he first came here he seemed frustrated that he was playing with a bunch of players that didn't have his football sense...he would make a nifty pass because he reckoned someone would know to be in that spot...but they never were. But as Ped says, we have new and better players now. I think he's worth keeping for at least Europa games.

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SonicBoom added 17:43 - Jun 11 For that money he should have been able to play in more than one way. Let's be honest, other than 'flashes' he simply wasn't very good. Or at least not as good as we wanted him to be....
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Zambucco added 06:40 - Jun 12 Totally agree with Boondocks, I think his vision was way beyond who he was playing with and often made him look a waste of money. But with the likes of Long and Mane, he c could possibly be worth a final punt. His only discretion in my eyes, was wearing corn rows!
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GeordieSaint added 11:29 - Jun 12 I really thought we could have done with him this year. Loads of teams seemed to want to shut up shop at St Marys and that is the perfect sort of game for him. Fair enough the way we play he isn't going to start many games but with 30 mins to go against stubborn opposition he would be ideal.
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schatfield added 13:16 - Jun 12 we couldnt keep him though this year, he had to be moved on loan purely to satisfy the FFP requirements - likely the same will happen again especially if more new faces come in
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