Listen Sharp came to saints as his strike partner Lambert is twice the player Beckford thinks he is. We also have Lallana and Chaplow to provide chances for him. Your midfield is not great and you Leicester boys would be the first to say that. Throw in the 2 league positions and its hardly a mystery he joined us.
I'll ignore your arrogance and tell you that you're missing the point. Well, two actually. 1) Sharp said he wanted to stay at his home and he didn't want to relocate his family so soon after obvious difficulties. 2) League position can't be a reason because Fulham were very much interested in acquiring his services. If he wasn't fussed about moving then why turn down PL football? Now what do you think is the reasoning? Personally I think it's money.
I promise you now, Billy hasn't joined us for the money. You offered him a lot, lot more than we did but the attraction of Premier League football + Adkins/Crosby were obviously too much for him to turn down. Fulham never made a bid as far as I'm aware, and if you're saying they did but it was less than yours (the release fee of £1.85m) then it wouldn't of been accepted, therefore not giving Sharp the opportunity to talk to/sign for them.
Maybe it is money, maybe it is because of Adkins, maybe he is a Southampton fan, maybe it is because he and his wife suddenly decided they want to get as far away from Sheffield as possible - ultimately what does it matter in the end as he is not our player. Hopefully he does really well for Southampton - we have already played them twice in the league this season (beating them both time in case you've all forgotten ) - so let him score bucketloads of goals and take the points off all of our rivals for the playoff places .
This is what he said: "It's a massive club with huge ambitions, and that is the main reason. The Gaffer and his coaching team was another reason and it felt right in my head too. I can't wait to get on with the challenge."
I think he didnt sign for the main reason Mackail-Smith didnt. We didnt go all out for them and Nigel said we made the best offer we felt we could. Hardly smashing the door down for him. Southampton have gained more then we would have by signing him. We already have Nugent and Beckford while they only really had Lambert
Guly is 4th top scorer in the league and our leading scorer from open play but I do think Sharp would have been a very good signing for you as well. Beckford is inconsistent - he has only scored 2 league goals this season.
From articles in papers today it appears he may have accepted £10k a week less! - so it was not the cash - I've had a hunch for sometime (and it's no more than that) that perhaps, despite the successful 'partnership' at Scunthorpe, he may not actually get on that well with Beckford... whatever the real reason I suspect it is something more than is actually being publicised - and that's not meant as a dig at Southampton in any way - merely that in these days of mercenary footballers 'ambition' is, more often than not, a lesser god than money ....
Beckford currently has 5 in his last 3 games - albeit all in the FA cup but he is a confidence player so hopefully this will be the jump start he needed. Sharp would have been an excellent signing for us but alas you got him now so no point in dwelling on the past. Good luck for the rest of the season and as I wrote before, hopefully he will lead you to victory against all of our rivals currently above us.
Its not ambition, it the short term Saints have better propects then us but in the medium to long term we both have simaliar ambitions. With Beckford now kicking on im not bothered about Sharp. We just need to get someone more long term sorted for Nathan Delfouneso.
Beckford is just getting going. There has been massive changes with him in the past month and he has banged in 5 goals
These are the reasons. As stated by the man himself: "I'm delighted. It has been a long time coming, but I am delighted to get it done, and now I am just looking forward to getting on the pitch and showing the fans what I can do." "It's a massive club with huge ambitions, and that is the main reason. The Gaffer and his coaching team was another reason and it felt right in my head too. I can't wait to get on with the challenge."
Thats always a dangerous game for both clubs and players. Lots of players signed for us because of Sven and when he went they wanted to go too. In the short term Nigel Adkins isnt going anywhere but if you dont go up a bigger team may come sniffing and then what for your players who are there for him
no big teams would take the risk on adkins, the ones that would want him would be in a similar to us, he is in for the long haul
If you go on a bad run he might get the sack. If you dont go up so many teams have struggled in their second