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CONFIRMED: Graziano Pelle Joins Shandong Luneng - Undisclosed Fee (12-15M)


saint lard

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I'll miss Graziano. I'll only ever have fond memories. That overhead vs QPR, his chested lay-off to Davis @ Stamford Bridge. His 30 yarder vs Stoke. Fantastic stuff.

 

Lets face it, coming in to replace Rickie was not an easy job and he did a very good job. I'll miss him.

 

Still surprised we aren't lining up a replacement, but what do I know?!

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I read article last season that no club who deals with Chinese lets them pay in installments and all payments are up front from now on as clubs burnt in past from clubs getting into financial difficulties

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Saints aside, seems a shame for a striker of that age to give up on his career for money. Is crazy money though.

 

hey alot of so called big players that went to so called bigger clubs went exactly for that reason...........Sterling ,Delph,Walcott,.to name just a few.............nothing new.

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Inevitable move really, just glad he didn't go to one of our league rivals, and especiaaly for a knockdown fee.

 

Club have done well with the fee. Hope its invested with aview to bolstering our attacking options, aand a good CF.

 

I know he had his critics but I liked Pelle. He had a thankless task in being seen to replace Rickie Lambert, and in truth he managed it quite well. I'll certainly be grateful to him for his part in our post 2014 'summer meltdown' and helping to stabilise the club, and see its league position actually improve. His contribution to that should not go unnoticed.

 

Two memories of him, are the goal v QPR, and his celebration against Palace involving Kelvin in it.

 

Good luck to him, and thanks.

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Another one gone, this is getting silly now. We had better buy a decent replacement.

 

He would you feel if we were to announce the signing of Charlie Austin tomorrow, rather than having bought him in January against all expectation?

Edited by Faz
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He would you feel if we were to announce the signing of Charlie Austin tomorrow, rather than having bought him in January against all expectation?

 

A bit ****ed off as he has scored once and hardly played as injured since January.

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Pellé's overhead kick against QPR is still the best goal I've ever seen live, and he'll be remembered for a long time, but he's replaceable. I think the deal is good for all sides and we'll replace him appropriately. I never thought we'd make a profit on him. Thanks Graz, enjoy the millions... now let's bring in someone younger.

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He would you feel if we were to announce the signing of Charlie Austin tomorrow, rather than having bought him in January against all expectation?

 

The thing with signing Charlie when did was that it completely strengthened us and gave us yet another tool in the toolbox as we didn't really have a "fox in the box".

 

It gave us 4 strikers of 4 different styles. We've now lost a specific sort of striker & one that (with Rickie) has almost been the DNA of our resurgence.

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Pretty happy with this. Got a couple of peak years out of him then made a profit on a 31 year old. Was never going to hang around playing 3rd fiddle to long and Austin. Pretty happy with our striking offers but definitely feel we need to use these funds to bring in another classy attacking midfielder.

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Fair play to Graz for getting that type of deal. I am not as gutted as some of the other players we've sold in recent times.

 

Good luck to him.

 

We do need to source an exciting striker now... That's for sure.

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hey alot of so called big players that went to so called bigger clubs went exactly for that reason...........£££££££ Sterling ,

Delph,Walcott,.to name just a few.............nothing new.

 

Let me stop you right there ...... ££££Sterling is today's correct answer.

 

happy memories (above) of his screamer away at Stoke in the LC, but popular (mongboard) wisdom has it that he only scored at home.

 

does anybody have a breakdown of where in terms of H/A his goals occurred?

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eb13cce8f771799bab5724f4da1eebba.jpg

 

How often do you get to achieve a lifelong ambition.... [emoji23]

 

He doesn't look incredibly happy. The bleak communist era background suggest to me he's holding a copy of today's newspaper and saying "Les, Les, I messed it up!"

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Agreed it's not all about blowing huge amounts of cash all over the place.

 

However, by the same calculations and reasoning any future spend on transfers by Southampton will also be spread over instalments going forward. As the money is mostly guaranteed, except for a couple of million here and there, that money is all potentially available by the board to spend now!

Don't forget the elephant in the room: £60 million a year wage bill.

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Did a really good job for us and help stabilise the club and fill the hole left by Rickie . Felt we played better with Long up top and Koeman could have dropped him a bit more . Pleased the guy played for his country and at the euros because of his move to us . He was good for us and we were good for him , but this is the right time to part ( particularly bearing in mind the profit ) . Whilst nowhere near legendary status I'm sure he'll be fondly remembered and get a great welcome if he ever pops back in future .

 

I agree with the people saying we need a replacement , long is a shoe in but doubts must be there over JRod & Austin . Shame Robson -Kanu did so well at the euros and he'd have been a half decent squad player , but he'll have delusions of grandeur at the moment .

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He'll be in Jinan then, which is pretty near Qingdao and not far from Beijing, so won't be too bad I'd imagine, Beijing is a fantastic place and has all the Western luxury goods, cars, jewellers, shopping and restaurants he'd like.

 

5hrs or so from Beijing. Sure he won't do too badly for creature comforts though.

Imagine he will find going anywhere incognito difficult. A baseball cap won't be enough.

 

Been good for us but mad for him to turn down those wages at 31.

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From largely unknown Italian to their highest ever paid player, and to think he hadn't even been capped by Italy before he came to little old Southampton. I am genuinely sorry to see him go. I wonder if we shall ever find out exactly what Saints received for him, the £13m to 15m would suggest add ons!?

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From largely unknown Italian to their highest ever paid player, and to think he hadn't even been capped by Italy before he came to little old Southampton. I am genuinely sorry to see him go. I wonder if we shall ever find out exactly what Saints received for him, the £13m to 15m would suggest add ons!?

 

I'm sure I read that in most cases Chinese clubs pay the fee's up front, straight away. Not entirely sure what sort of addon's we could get, he's not going to get International or European recognition over there!

 

I reckon we got a straight £13m in one big hit. If they can afford to pay him £250k p/w, then they can afford to pay us that from their lose change.

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Pelle was great for SFC, and SFC have certainly been great for him. Such a lucrative deal for a player getting close to the plateau stage and for Saints to recoup purchase price and more was outstanding business. Loved some of his hold up play; link up with Tadic and inter-changes with Mane and Long - even some of those flicks were worth watching. Interesting to compare the effectiveness of Pelle, Tadic, Mane and Long with the Adkins/Poch combination of Lambert, Lallana, J-Rod and Punch. Happy days.

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Will also be a shame to see the back of the "It's Magic, Tadic to Graziano" chant, one of the rare original (I think?) numbers that sounds good and fits with players names (and that Tadic to Graziano was a common occurrence)!

 

Unfortunately not original. Man Utd sung a version of it about Scholes and Carrick. I think Watford had a version too.

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The only thing getting silly is the prices being thrown around. Is £15m a world record for a 31 year old?

 

http://talksport.com/football/golden-oldies-10-most-expensive-players-over-age-30-revealed-150624151978?p=0

According to this it puts him well up in the top 10 players over 30! More than Real paid for Van Nistlehorse but not as much as old Batigol went for back in the day!

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Oh I'd be so surprised if we kept Tadic. Fonte will probably go too and Bertrand another strong possibility. I don't think Reed will be happy until at least another 2 quality players are out the door.

 

Any other predictions you want to make ? You seem to have Les Reed all figured out.

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