Forgotten Southampton hero opens up on his rapid unceremonious departure | OneFootball

Billy Sharp was Southampton's crucial source of goals during his brief stint. Recently, the attacker reflected on his lacklustre training efforts which quickly made him bid farewell to the Saints.

As Southampton are walking towards the Championship, Adam Armstrong's playoff heroics must be fondly remembered by the Saints nowadays. I know his Premier League figures are quite deceiving of his quality but the striker is known to make amends for those dwindling figures in the second-division.

Clearly, Armstrong may be a unique number nine in this regard, isn't it? Well, it's true currently but Southampton had a similar kind of attacker previously who operated on two different levels in the Premier League and Championship.

The above-mentioned forward is Billy Sharp who had a brief stint at St. Mary's years ago. To give an idea of his playing time, Sharp barely received a thousand competitive minutes at the club.

Yet, that didn't deny him from reaching double-digits in terms of finding the back of the net. Now, it's natural to wonder the reasons that made Southampton give up on him this early and in such a fine rhythm.

Billy's pre-game performances cost him at Southampton

As it stands, a lethargic training routine held back Sharp from displaying his full potential at Southampton.

Remembering those practice session struggles, Sharp narrated an anecdote to EFL Unfiltered: "The first two days of training, it was the biggest shock of my life. Adam Lallana, Morgan Schneiderlin and Steve Davis playing one-touch, two-touch. I couldn't keep up with the ball with my eyes, let alone with my body."

Obviously, that midfield was miles better than the current one but Sharp must have doubled down his efforts to match their quality. Unfortunately, the latter never succeded this way and was shown his departure quicker than any Southampton fan had expected.

If the Saints still held their squad to these training standards, who knows they could have become a regular mid-table club instead of being relegation favourites by now.