Southampton wasted £26m on Reed signing who earned more than Armstrong

Southampton followers might be hoping their crew can flip a nook within the Premier League after the worldwide break, conscious that relegation is a lifeless certainty in the event that they proceed at their present trajectory.

Russell Martin’s males are all-time low of the division, having lost nine of their 11 top-flight games thus far, with quite a few key performers from their Championship promotion heroics constantly letting them down.

A kind of faces is Adam Armstrong, who has receded into his shell within the elite division, after cementing himself as a potent striker final season within the second tier.

Armstrong’s kind this season

It should really feel like a really very long time in the past for Saints followers when Armstrong was firing in objective after objective for the South Coast outfit on the best way to Premier League soccer being reached, with the ex-Blackburn Rovers man scuffling with the step-up alongside the remainder of his teammates.

The 27-year-old helped himself to a shocking objective return of 24 strikes from 49 Championship clashes, together with scoring the winner in a tense playoff ultimate that noticed Martin’s males nearly overcome Leeds United 1-0.

Armstrong sadly hasn’t been this cool in entrance of objective within the league above, solely registering a single strike from eight Premier League video games, as Southampton fear that an instantaneous return to the Championship is on the playing cards.

Conversations might quickly be had over the misfiring striker’s wage, due to this fact, with Capology stating that Armstrong is on a hefty £60k-per-week pay packet, making him the membership’s fifth-highest earner regardless of a regarding droop in performances.

But, a minimum of the 27-year-old has managed to shine for the South Coast facet throughout his keep at St. Mary’s to date, with one costly ahead of top-flight days passed by simply taking place as a significant waste of time.

Sofiane Boufal’s torrid time at Southampton

Sofiane Boufal arrived at Southampton in 2016 with a lot of fanfare connected to his identify, having simply set Ligue 1 alight with former employers Lille earlier than making the leap to England.

Boufal would bow out from the French membership with 11 goals and four assists subsequent to his identify in league motion throughout the 2015/16 season, with Southampton then anticipating the world of their Moroccan recruit in his new environment, forking out a bumper £16m to get the deal over the road throughout the Les Reed period.

Moderately than Boufal occurring to be a rip-roaring success on the South Coast, he would go down as a large flop, with solely 5 targets and 5 assists coming his approach when donning a Saints strip.

Lacking 30 video games in complete throughout the three underwhelming seasons he was on the membership owing to harm setbacks, Southampton had been very a lot made to rue forking out £16m to win the left winger’s companies, with Whole Saints Podcast contributor Lucy Highnett even blasting him as a “liability” again in 2020.

He would rating a elegant solo objective as a reminder of why Southampton did break the financial institution for his signature, however these moments of magic had been far too uncommon, with Boufal costing the Saints round a whopping £26m total when taking a look at his switch value, on high of his extreme wage throughout the three seasons he was on the membership.

Martin will simply hope Armstrong and different notable underperformers in his ranks within the right here and now flip round their kind quickly, with relegation quickly turning into a worrying actuality if issues do not drastically enhance.

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