Romeu - Barcelona

[Yorkshire Saint]

His legs were gone at St Marys versus a 400 million euro buy out clause 🤔

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/football/first-team/news/3594827/oriol-romeu-third-signing-for-fc-barcelona

I would be interested to know what Barca paid for him versus our give away.

What a curious tale...

[beatlesaint]

Fantastic for him, and a three year deal as well.

Yeah, all the experts who kept insisting his legs were gone, time to get rid etc etc. Pity Barcelona didnt give them a call and save themselves some money ! 🙄

[Saint86]

Fantastic news for him - one of my favourite saints players in recent years. Great attitude both on and off the pitch by all accounts, and someone who put family over a big pay day (with the girona move) - so for it to work out like this for him is well deserved and a nice story.

Edited 19 July, 2023 by Saint86

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Personally I'd just bite the bullet and activate the €400m buy out clause now.

Bring him home. 

[AlexLaw76]

Not good enough for saints, eh

LOL

[Bad Wolf]

Where were all these comments? I don't remember anyone suggesting he wasn't good enough? Maybe that Lavia was better but that's not the same.

[Black Sea Saint]

I bet he doesn't play much

 

[beatlesaint]

9 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Where were all these comments? I don't remember anyone suggesting he wasn't good enough? Maybe that Lavia was better but that's not the same.

they were there - "legs have gone, too slow, not what he was last season" etc etc etc

[LaptopSaint]

Made up for him. Good luck Ori 

[AlexLaw76]

35 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

they were there - "legs have gone, too slow, not what he was last season" etc etc etc

And...don't need him, we have Lavia (who was injured at the time)

 

[farawaysaint]

1 hour ago, Yorkshire Saint said:

His legs were gone at St Marys versus a 400 million euro buy out clause 🤔

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/football/first-team/news/3594827/oriol-romeu-third-signing-for-fc-barcelona

I would be interested to know what Barca paid for him versus our give away.

What a curious tale...

I love Oriel but how the hell do Barca determine buy-out clauses? 

[SW5 SAINT]

Perhaps we inserted a sell on clause and will receive a percentage of the €400…..!

[LeBizzier69]

I’m not sure why people are piling in on what people said at the time. He was off the pace for the premier league at the time he left. 
The PL is a totally different pace to La Liga….so it made sense all round given the service he’d given us. 
Hindsight says perhaps we should have kept on, but hey ho. 

[Lighthouse]

Basically it’s like Tadic and Fonte all over again, where he’s found a new lease of life in a less intense, lower paced league. That doesn’t equate to him doing the business if he was still here. Of all the areas where we replaced players last summer, CM is probably the only area where there was a noticeable improvement.

Good luck to him at Barca, I’m genuinely pleased as he seemed a top bloke, but let’s not rewrite too much history. In a couple of years we’ll probably be bottom half of the Championship, Elyounoussi will be playing well in the Europa League and people on here will be saying, “not good enough for Saints, too slow and predictable according to the experts on Saints web. 😂😂😂”

[Saint Fan CaM]

Good luck to Romeu…great Saints player who often just got on with the job without flair, but with passion. If we could have kept hold of him we should have, but by all accounts he wanted away and deserved his opportunity.

[Lighthouse]

16 minutes ago, farawaysaint said:

I love Oriel but how the hell do Barca determine buy-out clauses? 

They remember getting no-lube, butt-f**ked by PSG over a clause they thought nobody would pay for Neymar and henceforth made all their subsequent release fees (which are required by Spanish law) absurdly high.

[trousers]

29 minutes ago, LeBizzier69 said:

I’m not sure why people are piling in on what people said at the time. He was off the pace for the premier league at the time he left. 
The PL is a totally different pace to La Liga

 

27 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Basically it’s like Tadic and Fonte all over again, where he’s found a new lease of life in a less intense, lower paced league. That doesn’t equate to him doing the business if he was still here.

Indeed. Predicatable to see the Saintsweb non-sequitur brigade out in force...  

Edited 19 July, 2023 by trousers

[Sunglasses Ron]

1 hour ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

Personally I'd just bite the bullet and activate the €400m buy out clause now.

Bring him home. 

Haha yup, sometimes you just have to admit you were wrong.

Maybe a cheeky swap deal for Lavia, who clearly hasn't even found his legs yet?

[S-Clarke]

I'm so pleased for him that he's been able to go full-circle, you don't often get strong affiliations with players but he is one from the recent years I'd have back here at a shot - love the guy.

I hope he does well there and fills a pretty big Busquets hole. It's a shame he won't get to play at the Camp Nou though.

[AlexLaw76]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

Basically it’s like Tadic and Fonte all over again, where he’s found a new lease of life in a less intense, lower paced league. That doesn’t equate to him doing the business if he was still here. Of all the areas where we replaced players last summer, CM is probably the only area where there was a noticeable improvement.

Good luck to him at Barca, I’m genuinely pleased as he seemed a top bloke, but let’s not rewrite too much history. In a couple of years we’ll probably be bottom half of the Championship, Elyounoussi will be playing well in the Europa League and people on here will be saying, “not good enough for Saints, too slow and predictable according to the experts on Saints web. 😂😂😂”

Sometimes, you just have to admit you got something wrong. It is OK, happens to the best of us.

[VectisSaint]

1 hour ago, LeBizzier69 said:

I’m not sure why people are piling in on what people said at the time. He was off the pace for the premier league at the time he left. 
The PL is a totally different pace to La Liga….so it made sense all round given the service he’d given us. 
Hindsight says perhaps we should have kept on, but hey ho. 

He wasn't off the pace, he was recovering from injury. He never had that much pace anyway, though he could turn it on if needed (I don't remember who it was against, but that run back and tackle to save a certain goal was one of the best bits of defending ever). What he provided was a rock Infront of the back 4, and organisational skills and good short passing. We needed Lavia to add to what we had, not replace, and could have freed up JWP to get forward more, where he is better. He was a massive loss last season, in my opinion the biggest single reason for our abject failure. I'm very pleased for him that he has got the recognition he deserves but boy do I wish we had never let him go (without adequate replacement). 

[Yorkshire Saint]

3 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

He wasn't off the pace, he was recovering from injury. He never had that much pace anyway, though he could turn it on if needed (I don't remember who it was against, but that run back and tackle to save a certain goal was one of the best bits of defending ever). What he provided was a rock Infront of the back 4, and organisational skills and good short passing. We needed Lavia to add to what we had, not replace, and could have freed up JWP to get forward more, where he is better. He was a massive loss last season, in my opinion the biggest single reason for our abject failure. I'm very pleased for him that he has got the recognition he deserves but boy do I wish we had never let him go (without adequate replacement). 

Versus Leeds I think...

[davefizzy14]

So chuffed for Romeu, was a top player for us and a top class person. Gave us seven amazing years Wish him all the best at Barcelona, he deserves it.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

8 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

He wasn't off the pace, he was recovering from injury. He never had that much pace anyway, though he could turn it on if needed (I don't remember who it was against, but that run back and tackle to save a certain goal was one of the best bits of defending ever). What he provided was a rock Infront of the back 4, and organisational skills and good short passing. We needed Lavia to add to what we had, not replace, and could have freed up JWP to get forward more, where he is better. He was a massive loss last season, in my opinion the biggest single reason for our abject failure. I'm very pleased for him that he has got the recognition he deserves but boy do I wish we had never let him go (without adequate replacement). 

My interpretation was that he was burnt out after a long season playing in a system that asked him to cover a lot of ground. Either way, his legs were very much intact

Edited 19 July, 2023 by Ex Lion Tamer

[Holmes_and_Watson]

7 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

He wasn't off the pace, he was recovering from injury. He never had that much pace anyway, though he could turn it on if needed (I don't remember who it was against, but that run back and tackle to save a certain goal was one of the best bits of defending ever). What he provided was a rock Infront of the back 4, and organisational skills and good short passing. We needed Lavia to add to what we had, not replace, and could have freed up JWP to get forward more, where he is better. He was a massive loss last season, in my opinion the biggest single reason for our abject failure. I'm very pleased for him that he has got the recognition he deserves but boy do I wish we had never let him go (without adequate replacement). 

I'd have given an extra like for that post.

Was he at his best at the end of that season? No, he was not. Was anyone else in the team, regardless of their age? No, they were not. But apparently, his legs had gone, and it was all over. Plus returning from injury and contract issues in the background too.

A big miss for us, and chuffed to bits for him.

[Miltonaggro]

Great footballer and a top man by all accounts, a rarity in the modern game.  Delighted for him and hope he gets the opportunity to turn it on against the Prem franchises in the Champions League.    

[Convict Colony]

Quite simple, he wanted to go back to spain with his young family and he had been a great servant for us so we wished him well and risked lavia being ok.

No one was saying get rid of him, we wanted him and lavia but he wanted to head home and had a good offer of a contract, turns out his dreams of returning to barca became a reality and it couldnt of happened to a nice guy. 

Sometimes i think this forum is just about 1 upmanship, who was right and who was wrong, I will let you into a little secret no one is keeping score unless MLG is jotting them down.

[Osvaldorama]

Chuffed for him, but he should still be here. 
 

Yet another damning indictment (in a very long list) of how the people running the club don’t understand football & spot a decent player. 

[skintsaint]

His career has gone full circle. Best of luck OR!

[woodsaint1]

He should still be here, we shouldnt have let him go, the people at the club dont have a clue....

He wanted to go back to Spain. We honoured that and brought Lavia in in his place (who will make us a tidy profit). We would also have still got relegated regardless if he was still here.

Delighted for OR, hope he wins a title or two

[Holmes_and_Watson]

15 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

I will let you into a little secret no one is keeping score unless MLG is jotting them down.

Shame you feel that way, as after your "now he's given her his washing, he's a merciless bastard" line the other day, you were top. No trophy for you now. 🙂

[VectisSaint]

58 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

I'd have given an extra like for that post.

Was he at his best at the end of that season? No, he was not. Was anyone else in the team, regardless of their age? No, they were not. But apparently, his legs had gone, and it was all over. Plus returning from injury and contract issues in the background too.

A big miss for us, and chuffed to bits for him.

I really don't think there was much in the way of contract issues. From what I understand the offer from Girona came 'out of the blue', a speculative, half hearted approach. Speculation then would be that Ralph was asked if he had any objections and said no, and things moved swiftly on. I suspect Oriol was delighted to hear someone in his home area was keen to see him back and it was good for his family so he happily moved, clearly the impression from Ralph was that he was not fussed about keeping him. So I will forever blame Ralph, whether that is justified or not.

[Chez]

What a great move for him.

I think I spent the entire time he was here trying to convince one or two on here just how good he was. Such an underrated player. Brilliant first touch and the technical ability to work in the tightest of areas. When he and JWP were on song, we dominated possession against a lot of teams. Loved it when he scored the odd goal. That screamer of a volley springs to mind. 

Seeing as he departed on the last day of the window, I wonder if we actually signed Lavia to play with him, or even to deputise, with AMN the actual Romeu replacement (who joined on the last day of the window).

[The Kraken]

1 minute ago, Chez said:

Seeing as he departed on the last day of the window, I wonder if we actually signed Lavia to play with him, or even to deputise, with AMN the actual Romeu replacement (who joined on the last day of the window).

My memory of it is that Romeu wasn’t all that prominent in pre-season and, while he started on opening day with JWP and Lavia, he was then benched for every league game with us until he was sold. Ralph certainly seemed to have a plan that didn’t involve Romeu and I definitely believed that his intention for Lavia was as a direct replacement for Romeu (I seem to recall that at the time I, like a few others, thought we were best off with a midfield 3 that included Romeu).

[Chez]

2 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

My memory of it is that Romeu wasn’t all that prominent in pre-season and, while he started on opening day with JWP and Lavia, he was then benched for every league game with us until he was sold. Ralph certainly seemed to have a plan that didn’t involve Romeu and I definitely believed that his intention for Lavia was as a direct replacement for Romeu (I seem to recall that at the time I, like a few others, thought we were best off with a midfield 3 that included Romeu).

we started with 5 at the back. It was a total disaster. Ralph's original plan went in the bin after one game. We then went to 4-2-3-1 and Romeu was the odd man out. I am not sure Ralph had known all summer that Romeu would depart in that window. Possibly.   

[The Kraken]

13 minutes ago, Chez said:

we started with 5 at the back. It was a total disaster. Ralph's original plan went in the bin after one game. We then went to 4-2-3-1 and Romeu was the odd man out. I am not sure Ralph had known all summer that Romeu would depart in that window. Possibly.   

I don’t think Ralph thought Romeu was definitely off, just that he had it in mind that Lavia was his direct replacement. As you say we dabbled with the ridiculous 5 at the back but I just checked, of the 3 pre season games we played before kick off Romeu only started in one of them (Monaco), and didn’t get many minutes at all in the other two games (Watford and Villareal, the latter of which Romeu got 10 minutes at the end). Romeu was sidelined before we reverted back to 4 at the back. We didn’t actually bin off 5 at the back until late in the Leeds game, we were 2-0 down and still had 3 CBs on the pitch and a midfield of JWP, Lavia and Aribo. Bednarek went off for Mara, the comeback to 2-2 happened, and from that we went 4 at the back.

Edited 19 July, 2023 by The Kraken

[sydney_saint]

1 hour ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

My interpretation was that he was burnt out after a long season playing in a system that asked him to cover a lot of ground. Either way, his legs were very much intact

I think there were a few players that were burnt out. You can see by how far we plummeted that there were only a small handful of players that kept us up for a few years, and once their form finally dropped, we plummeted. I think these players are Romeu, JWP, KWP and Ings before he left. I would also include Ralph. A very small group had to cover the massive shortcomings in the rest of the squad for so so long. I don't think it is any surprise that all these players lost form. I think if Romeu had stayed, he may have continued that poorer form that he showed in his last few months. Not blaming him one iota for that, keeping this squad in the EPL would drag anyone down.

[The Kraken]

5 minutes ago, sydney_saint said:

I think there were a few players that were burnt out. You can see by how far we plummeted that there were only a small handful of players that kept us up for a few years, and once their form finally dropped, we plummeted. I think these players are Romeu, JWP, KWP and Ings before he left. I would also include Ralph. A very small group had to cover the massive shortcomings in the rest of the squad for so so long. I don't think it is any surprise that all these players lost form. I think if Romeu had stayed, he may have continued that poorer form that he showed in his last few months. Not blaming him one iota for that, keeping this squad in the EPL would drag anyone down.

Agreed. There were definitely quite a few on here suggesting that Romeu’s legs had gone. I didn’t see it that way, just that he had played game after game in a 2 man midfield and needed a break, someone else to come in and provide another option. I can only imagine he knew that Ralph didn’t really have him at the front of his first team plans and once the Girona offer came in it was sadly inevitable that he’d go.

[Convict Colony]

2 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Shame you feel that way, as after your "now he's given her his washing, he's a merciless bastard" line the other day, you were top. No trophy for you now. 🙂

it was a good line amigo hahahahahaha, i now describe him as fan killer instead of his name.

[Whitey Grandad]

Perhaps he's playing better becaus he's happier and he's back home.

[Channons Windmill]

I’ve always wondered whether there was a degree of Man City involvement in his move to Girona, after all they’re both part of CFG. Perhaps linked to our acquisitions last summer (and this)?

[The Kraken]

5 minutes ago, Channons Windmill said:

I’ve always wondered whether there was a degree of Man City involvement in his move to Girona, after all they’re both part of CFG. Perhaps linked to our acquisitions last summer (and this)?

City will likely have provided advice on him so have done the scouting, I can’t see any way there was any sort other involvement though. Saints obviously didn’t go out of their way to keep him or make him feel he was well in the first team plans, and he got an offer to move back to Catalunya.

[Yorkshire Saint]

14 minutes ago, Channons Windmill said:

I’ve always wondered whether there was a degree of Man City involvement in his move to Girona, after all they’re both part of CFG. Perhaps linked to our acquisitions last summer (and this)?

I think there was... Romeu to Girona was a pre requisite to City selling us Lavia. 

[waterlooville saint]

I'm really pleased for him, he had a great season last season at Girona.

There was a really interesting article on The Athletic about the background of the possible transfer to Barcelona and please for Romeu that it has gone through.

I was one of those people that said his legs had gone towards the end of his last season with us and I stand by that, as I saw a player who regularly struggled to help cover the CB's when our press was beaten, which is a key part of the defencive CM role in Ralph's playbook. I really think it was a big part of why we went on that bad run.

[Saint Gifford]

Great for him and his family. Should hopefully for him see out his career at Barca. 

I always thought in a Saints shirt, it made no difference about his legs, skills whatever. 
 

All I know is I wouldn’t have wanted to meet him in a dark alley, as an opponent I would have stayed well away from him, the scary looking MF 😆😆😆
 

 

[Miltonaggro]

37 minutes ago, Yorkshire Saint said:

I think there was... Romeu to Girona was a pre requisite to City selling us Lavia. 

Probably brokered after OR made golden boy Grealish look a complete tit in the 1-1 draw in January 22.  Romeu had the headband helmet in his pocket all afternoon that day - on the park and in the tunnel

[Disco Stu]

I'm very happy for him.

[Toadhall Saint]

Good on him - for a player from Catalonia there can be no bigger desire than to play for Barca in your career.

[Micky]

Great no nonsense pro, exactly the sort of player we needed last season, sad to say.  Down to earth, humble player who always gave it his best.   Some of the younger, image conscious players would do very well to follow his example both on and off the field. 

[Mr Brightside]

Love Romeu, really pleased for him.