Southampton are crying out for someone to lead the line with more conviction, having scored just one meagre goal so far this season in the Premier League.
It is of course only early days with just three league games done and dusted, but it is worrying that the only strike the Saints have managed to bag this campaign so far has come from a player who usually lines up in the right-back position in Yukinari Sugawara, who scored late on away at Brentford last time out.
Both Adam Armstrong and Ben Brereton-Diaz have been unable to find the back of the net so far as Southampton’s leading stars up top, with Armstrong fresh off a Championship season where he rifled home 24 strikes to help the South Coast side triumphantly win promotion
Neither players can boast the fact that they will be remembered in Southampton folklore anytime soon like former attacking heroes Gareth Bale or Theo Walcott, with both homegrown talents exciting those on the South Coast once upon a time with their raw ability as wide-eyed youngsters.
Their best days in football wouldn’t come about until after they left St. Mary’s behind, however, much like this transfer misfire who never settled at Southampton but was a prolific menace elsewhere.
Billy Sharp's transfer to Southampton
Sharp would join the Saints mid-way through the 2012/13 season with a reputation for being a goal machine in the Championship, having helped himself to 40 strikes in total across two campaigns and a half in the second tier with Doncaster Rovers.
Only costing a reported £1.8m to land too, Nigel Adkins – the Saints boss at the time – must have thought he’d struck gold, especially after his heroics in front of goal aided Southampton in returning to the Premier League that same season.
Sharp would net a mightily impressive nine strikes from just 15 clashes in the second tier to help his new employers achieve promotion, before then finding his time with the Saints would begin to unravel.
He would be continually be chucked back out on loan to a whole host of EFL clubs, to further show off his deadly goalscoring instincts in the Championship with the likes of Nottingham Forest, Reading and back at Doncaster, with the sharpshooter never given a fair crack at the Premier League when playing for the South Coast side.
The ex-Southampton number 11 would only make a further three appearances for the club before walking away in 2014 to return to more familiar surroundings in Yorkshire, way away from the South Coast location he had struggled to grow attached to, and nearer to his former clubs in Doncaster and Sheffield United.
Saints manager Ronald Koeman would only offload Sharp for £600k when he did leave, a big loss on the alleged £1.8m they had previously forked out to win his services, but he would end up also being somewhat of a flop for his next employers in Leeds United.
It wouldn’t be until Sharp rejoined his beloved Blades that he would get back into his goalscoring groove once more, only managing five goals from 35 games for Leeds, but putting that way behind him when turning into a lethal beast at Bramall Lane.
Sharp's rebirth at Sheffield United
Sharp is well remembered for his many different spells with his hometown club, with his third and final spell with the Blades definitely his most impactful and memorable.
The 5 foot 9 livewire would rejoin his boyhood employers when they were swamped playing in League One, with his former Saints manager in Adkins very much struggling at the helm to breathe life back into the sleeping giants.
That wouldn’t stop Sharp from at least raising the spirits of a dejected Blades fanbase with his knack of instinctively finishing chances, with 21 league strikes registered during his first season back in South Yorkshire, even as United slumped to a disappointing 11th placed finish.
It wouldn’t be until Chris Wilder – who is also born and bred from Sheffield like Sharp – stepped up to replace Adkins that the Blades would start to jump up the leagues, with Sharp and Wilder a match made in heaven.
Sharp would fire home a staggering 30 league goals during the 2016/17 campaign as United won the League One title in style, before then helping his rejuvenated troops seal another promotion up to the Premier League during the 18/19 season, courtesy of 23 league strikes being hammered home from 40 contests.
All of these goals would come about after the veteran striker rejoined the ranks at Bramall Lane for just £500k, as Southampton watched on wondering what could have been if the now 38-year-old attacker had acclimatised to his St Mary’s surroundings better in the Premier League.
Player
Amount of clubs
Games played
Goals scored
1. Billy Sharp
6
397
130
2. Jordan Rhodes
6
379
123
3. David Nugent
5
415
121
4. Ross McCormack
5
331
120
5. Chris Martin
8
444
114
His exploits in the second tier for United and many more clubs would lead to Sharp being crowned the Championship’s record all-time goalscorer, with 120 goals registered in the division from 397 clashes in total.
That isn’t the only mind-boggling statistic involving the 38-year-old’s plentiful goal numbers either, with his career goal tally – which continues to go up and up even to this day – now surpassing both Bale and Walcott’s own outputs, who are legends on the South Coast, unlike Sharp.
Sharp's form this season
Both Bale and Walcott – who notched up totals of 185 goals and 132 goals respectively before calling it a day – pale in comparison somewhat to Sharp’s ever-growing amount, who is still a feared striker for defenders to come up against now plying his trade in League Two.
He has remained close to Sheffield too, with the ageing attacker back at another of his former employers in Doncaster, where he continues to be effective.
Player
Club
Games
Goals
Goal conversion %
1. Molyneux
Doncaster
5
4
31%
= 1. McGoldrick
Notts County
5
4
33%
= 1. James Berry
Chesterfield
5
4
31%
4. Billy Sharp
Doncaster
5
3
43%
= 4. Michael Cheek
Bromley
5
3
25%
Looking at the table above, with the addition of his three strikes from five games to date this season, Sharp’s bumper career tally goes up to an astronomical 276 goals, showing that there’s a lot of life still left in his legs.
Of course, he will be preparing for his retirement at some point soon, with his spell at Southampton not exactly one he will revisit in his head with much sentimentality when he does hang up his boots for good.
But, the likes of Armstrong back at St. Mary’s in the present still has time on his hands to become an even more loved figure at Southampton this season if he can soon break his goalscoring duck, and score the vital strikes that see his side steer away from relegation doom.
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