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Gaston Ramirez Signs For Middlesbrough !
Tuesday, 26th Jan 2016 12:53

Gaston Ramirez has still not ended his spell at Southampton, after not going to Italy as expected but joining Middlesbrough, perhaps the least Italian of English towns or cities.

Gaston Ramirez is still a Saints player after Championship club Middlesbrough announced that he has joined them on loan for the rest of the season.

The details are like most loan moves unclear apart from the length, but it will probably mean that Saints are having to still pay a fair chunk of his rumoured £50-60k salary.

If he had moved to Italy and Bologna on a permanent deal then it would have meant that Saints would have had him completely off the wage bill, but that is not going to be the case now.

From Ramirez point of view it means that he can go on picking up a hefty salary right till the end of his contract in July, you can't blame the player for wanting to do this, yes it is disappointing that he was not ready to cut his losses, but to be blunt he did not put a gun to Nicola Cortese's head and force the ex Saints Chairman to offer him that exorbitant salary, so he is entitled to receive every penny from it.

Ramirez would have been lucky to have got £20k a week in Italy with his stock very low after his time at Saints and even at Hull where he made little impression, that being the case he would have had to take a pay cut of around £40k a week to join Bologna, in cash terms that is a little over a cool million pounds he would have been waving goodbye to.

So that is the starting point for what his move to Boro will cost Saints assuming that the North East club are paying around £20k a week of his wages probably without having to pay a loan fee as well, but when you add National Insurance, Pension Contributions and loyalty bonus's to the mix, it could mean that Saints will lose somewhere between £1.5-2 million from Ramirez choosing a loan deal than if he had gone on a permanent move.

Whichever way Ramirez signing has been an expensive folly tht has cost the club somewhere around £30 million when you tot up transfer fee, wages, bonus's and all the peripherals, in other words more than half the money Saints would have received in that first season back in the Premier League.

Unlike that other Marque signing though, Ramirez has been a victim of circumstance rather than the architect of his own problems, from his earliest games it was clear that he was a play maker and a player who could thread a through ball into the channels, the problem with that was that Saints were playing to a certain style dictated to the manager by Cortese and Les Reed, that meant that the lone striker was Rickie Lambert and he was not a player that thrived on running on to passes and through balls.

That meant that Ramirez's talents were wasted, he either had to keep playing short balls or see inventive though passes wasted, that being the case Steven Davis could play a short ball as well as Ramirez and could run faster and tackle as well.

So it is a shame that we have not got shot of Ramirez or his wages just yet, but let's not blame Gaston, lets look at the circumstances that brought him to the club in what was pure folly.

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saintstuinoz added 13:19 - Jan 26
Good luck to him. Always looked to be trying, just didn't quite fit in here (Saints and the Premier League).
4

schatfield added 13:21 - Jan 26
strange one this. I dont think many saints fans would blame Gaston himself (or boo him if he came back with another team).
On the plus side, Boro were always well known for paying high wages, often much more than us, so i wouldnt be surprised if they were actually paying a large chunk of his salary despite what u reckon, on the gamble it fires them to the prem league. Good luck Gaston.
4

cheltenhamsaint added 13:33 - Jan 26
Has ability and had professional approach to his time at Saints but can anyone explain to me why Ramirez attracted so many "deserves one more chance" comments from the fan base?
Others get slagged off unless they are immediately at the top of their game on joining Saints - Mane, Long, Claisie, Forster to name just a few - but Ramirez seemed immune to any criticism during the entire length of his contract.
-3

SaintBrock added 14:25 - Jan 26
Good luck to you, Gaston. Hope it all works out at The Riverside and you get a contract for next season and we welcome you back here in the PL.

Give it your best shot, lad we'll be rooting for you.
4

davepid added 14:28 - Jan 26
I agree with Cheltenham Saint. I'm struggling to think of a single class moment from him in his years with us. At least Osvaldo scored that great goal against Man City
-1

geezershoong added 14:53 - Jan 26
Just when you thought Middlesbrough couldn't take any more economic migrants...
0

JGH added 16:40 - Jan 26
North East press reporting that he's taken a pay cut of £20k with Middlesbrough and ourselves each paying him £60k.

Realistically any deal in Italy would have relied on Saints continuing to pay part of his salary for the rest of the season so all in all not bad business.

Good luck to him, I think he could have been brilliant if utilized better...
2

ThereIn76 added 19:36 - Jan 26
He was the best player on the pitch when we beat Newcastle 2-0 in Nov 2012 and scored the 2nd goal. Yes he should have delivered more but he wasn't Nigel Adkins' choice. Don't forget that without his contribution we would have lost at Anfield this season.

Is Middlesbrough really the most un-Italian town in England? They did once have Fabrizio Ravanelli.

I wish him no ill and if he ever does face us at St Mary's he'll deserve a cordial reception.
1

DPeps added 20:21 - Jan 26
Maybe I'm a sentimental sod but I feel quite sad about this. I always thought it would work out eventually if he could stay injury-free and was given a run in the team.
On his day he's a great player: silky, speedy with the ball, good vision. There just weren't that many good days. Good luck to him
0

SanMarco added 11:37 - Jan 27
Therein76 - and they also had Maccarone didn't they?

I agree with Cheltenham that, while we obviously hold nothing against the guy, we have seen very little from him - alright formations/injuries hampered him but he would have managed to impress if he was good enough.
0


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