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Monday, August 19, 2013

BPL: "He fights, he scores!" Say hello to Southampton's new Italian signing

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http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/news/fights-scores-meet-southampton-striker-osvaldo-093000269.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The person who sums up Pablo Daniel Osvaldo best is the Italo-Argentine himself. "I am a bit of a lunatic. I fight, I score, I react, but I do everything to excess."

But any thoughts that Southampton's new €15.1 million (£12.9m) signing may calm down on the south coast should be tempered with further Osvaldo confessions.

"I was forced to grow up but there's a part of me that rejects the idea of growing up," he told La Repubblica in December 2012. "I make pointless fouls but, at that moment, they seem right.

"It's true, I have a horrible personality but I kind of like being like this. I always miss something in life, especially my home in Argentina."

He once punched team-mate Erik Lamela for failing to pass to him against Udinese, winning him a club fine and 10-day suspension as well as the 'Tapiro d'Oro' (Golden Pig) award from a TV current affairs show.

More recently, Osvaldo was exiled from the Italy squad at the Confederations Cup for his reaction to being given only a short run-out by Roma coach Aurelio Andreazzoli in the Coppa Italia final against Lazio. When Andreazzoli said that there was "nothing new" to Osvaldo's stroppy behaviour, the striker tweeted that his boss should "admit he's incompetent and go celebrate with the Laziali".

But he is also right when he declares that "I score".

Osvaldo is one of the most 'English' centre forwards in the game today. Strong in the challenge, powerful in the air with an excellent hold-up game and an eye for goal, the former Espanyol man has all the attributes regularly expected of a Premier League striker. Add in a serious amount of self-belief and the ability to produce the odd wonder-goal, and Osvaldo becomes a real weapon.

During a spell at Fiorentina of which he spent much on the bench, the 27-year-old hit a magnificent overhead kick goal against Torino which clinched a Champions League spot in 2008 - but it was during his 18-month period at Espanyol under current Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino that he really hit his stride, netting 22 times in 47 games.

"I play better when I'm happy," Osvaldo observed during his stay in Spain, "and in Italy I wasn't happy. There, unless you score 15 goals in three games you get dropped. Here I don't feel the pressure and I have fun. I need to feel important at a club."

Despite scoring 28 goals in 57 matches for Roma over the last two years, his various run-ins have meant that he hasn't been quite as settled in the Eternal City as he was under Pochettino in Catalunya.

His move to St Mary's Stadium gives him the opportunity to rekindle a relationship that was arguably the most productive of his career so far and, if Pochettino can once again get Osvaldo playing with a smile on his face, then Saints fans could be in for some excesses of their own.

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