 Thursday, 6th Jun 2013 13:07 I would say one of the most disapointing signings for Saints till I remembered Vegard Forren. Put bluntly I really cant see why we signed Mayuka, his signing for a not inconsiderable fee rumoured to be around £3.5 million in hindsight looks baffling, his season has consisted of just one start in the Premier League plus 10 appearances off the bench of varying, usually short amounts of time, totalling around 2 hours and 12 minutes approximately of game time on the pitch with little to show for that, certainly not a goal. I can see why Saints might have considered signing him in that we need pace and he is certainly fast, indeed on paper he should be an ideal foil for Rickie Lambert, the problem being though is that as we play a lone striker role, one that Mayuka certainly isnt suited for himself, he is going to get very little chance to do that, yes he runs about a lot, but then again so does Mo Farah and I would suggest that he would not be that far behind Mayuka in knowing whhere and when to make runs and that is the clue, a good player knows when to make a run and when to hold back. I would suggest that Saints would have been far better keeping Billy Sharp at the club, perhaps he isnt quite Premier quality as a striker, but he knows how to find the goal, there have certainly been some games where late on we have been crying out for a goal poacher but had no one to come on and save a game. Strangely even when we have been in that position, neither Nigel Adkins nor Mauricio Pochettino showed much enthusiasm to bring Mayuka on, from 5th November and the defeat against West Brom till 20th April when he suddenly appeared for a couple of minutes at the end of the 0-0 draw at Swansea, he played no football at all for Saints apart from a very puzzling appearance in the Sunderland game when he made his only start, completely inneffective he was hauled off after the break and replaced by stranger still Steve De Ridder whilst Jay Rodriguez remained on the bench, despite a lively 15 minutes at Liverpool the previous week, if ever the conspiracy theorists were out in force it was those couple of game. So Mayuka's contribution to Saints season was minimal to say the least and its hard to see what the future holds, yes Pochettino used him a little bit in the final four games, but that looks like the manager having a last look at him to give him the chance to prove himself, certainly he did nothing to suggest that he might come good next season. I have nothing against him as a player, I just think that his seat on the bench where he must be near the club record for consecutive sitting on the bench and not getting on the field, certainly for an outfield player, could have been better filled by Billy Sharpe or even Tadanari Lee for that matter, I dont know who was responsible for signing Mayuka, almost certainly not Nigel Adkins, but whoever it was made a mistake somewhere along the line, of course these things happen and its what happens next that counts. Im struggling to give Mayuka a rating here, perhaps a mark for putting on the kit smartly and another for warming up well, a third perhaps for getting on with the job as it must be frustrating for him as well to watch so many matches without involvement, but thats about it 3/10 Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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