Southampton will be hoping that a familiar face doesn’t come back to bite them this weekend when they travel to Sheffield United.
It’s set to be a closely-contested battle between two evenly-matched teams, and both will fancy their chances of winning. However, for one man, in particular, this is a game that will hold plenty of significance.
The love affair between Billy Sharp and his boyhood club has been well documented; he led them back up to the Premier League last season as their captain and is a much-loved figure by the Bramall Lane faithful.
Sharp is among the players who have enjoyed a wealth of success in the lower tiers of English football but either fallen short at the top level or narrowly missed out on a concrete chance to prove themselves amongst the country’s elite.
The 33-year-old falls into the latter category, and seven years ago, the striker could have been making a name for himself in the Premier League with Southampton.
Midway through the 2011/12 season, Nigel Adkins sought to add more firepower to his Saints squad as he attempted to oversee a remarkable second successive promotion.
The likes of Rickie Lambert, David Connolly and Guly Do Prado were all proving to be dependable Championship options, but an additional edge to help push Southampton over the line and into the promised land was pursued.
One man who caught the eye was Sharp, who had been in fine goalscoring form for Doncaster Rovers before the turn of the year. A diminutive forward with exceptional movement and good instincts, he was no stranger to being linked with a departure from the Keepmoat Stadium.
With 10 goals to his name already, he was identified as a top target by Saints, and with just days of the January market remaining, he was unveiled as the club’s new signing in a deal believed to have been worth just under £2 million.
Sharp was among three permanent signings in the transfer window. Tadanari Lee arrived from Sanfrecce Hiroshima to further bolster Adkins’s options, while Jos Hooiveld’s loan from Celtic was made permanent.
Southampton made short-term moves in the January window to ensure that their position towards the summit of the Championship was consolidated.
After making his Saints debut in the bitterly cold surroundings of St Andrews in a 0-0 draw away at Birmingham City, Sharp wouldn’t take long to get himself on the scoresheet for his new club as he netted in Southampton’s 2-0 win against Burnley at home.
Sharp continued to be gradually integrated at St Mary’s; Adkins had a wealth of attacking options, and as such, the forward found himself being utilised as a super-sub rather than a nailed-on starter alongside Lambert.
But fittingly, Adkins recalled Sharp to the starting line-up to face his former club Doncaster at St Mary’s towards the end of March, and he duly delivered. A brace from the experienced forward condemned his ex-teammates to defeat, and further propelled Southampton in their hunt for a return to the Premier League.
He turned from hero to zero in the following week, however, as Saints’ hopes of promotion took a big blow. With Lambert ruled out, Sharp and Guly started up front away at Blackpool as Southampton suffered a 3-0 loss at Bloomfield Road. Sharp missed a penalty early on in the first half when the score was still 0-0.
Nevertheless, the January arrival picked himself up and prepared for what would prove to be the most memorable match of his Saints career: the South Coast Derby against Portsmouth. The fixture has created plenty of cult heroes on both sides over the years, and Sharp would write his name into the club’s folklore after netting twice in a 2-2 draw, celebrating directly in front of the travelling Pompey fans and silencing them as he opened the scoring.
Sharp would continue to spur Southampton on alongside Lambert in the closing stages of the season, netting four times in the club’s remaining five fixtures as they booked their place in the Premier League once again.
After finishing the campaign with 19 goals to his name – nine of which came after his January move to St Mary’s – along with a further four assists for his teammates, it seemed only sensible that he would be given a chance to bed into Adkins’s plans for the Premier League, particularly with the benefits of a first full pre-season under his belt.
However, the dream would be short-lived for Sharp, who mustered up only 18 minutes of top-flight football before Saints opted to send him out on loan to Nottingham Forest in the Championship, where he scored 10 times and assisted on five occasions.
The decision to ship Sharp out after his heroics in the lower tiers was harsh, to say the least. He had developed a strong understanding with Lambert, and appeared to have been ready for the step up to the top flight.
It was clear, though, that the club had other ideas in mind, as they looked towards more youthful, dynamic options. Jay Rodriguez was signed from Burnley in a club-record deal, while Emmanuel Mayuka arrived from Young Boys to supplement Adkins’s options up top.
The two incoming forwards had varying degrees of success. Rodriguez proved to be a decent if erratic option before Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival prompted an inspired decision to deploy him as a left-sided attacker rather than an orthodox striker. Mayuka, meanwhile, only managed 16 Premier League appearances for the club and scored a solitary goal in Southampton’s League Cup campaign in 2013/14.
Concerns had grown surrounding whether or not Sharp’s style would be quickly snuffed out by Premier League defenders. By no means the fastest forward nor the strongest, he has perennially relied on his presence of mind to find pockets of space between defenders before pouncing on chances in the box.
However, the decision to swat aside a player whose influence was treasured and appreciated – and is to this day – by Southampton fans upon their return to the Premier League, in favour of arguably lesser-proven players, still irks many.
Seven years on, Sharp has got a top-flight goal under his belt following a last-gasp equaliser at Bournemouth on the opening weekend of the season, and will now hope to aid his beloved Sheffield United in securing another positive result at the weekend.
Southampton will be hoping that the Blades captain doesn’t finally prove himself to be a capable Premier League forward against their shaky back-line on Saturday…
