Southampton have churned out plenty of talent that have gone on to the very top of the game, with Virgil van Dijk an obvious poster boy for a successful move away.

Many players who feature at St Mary’s, however, have struggled after departing, none more so than Dejan Lovren.

The Croatian centre-back was coming off the back of a fine season with his side, who had finished just two points behind Liverpool as they secured a seventh-place finish.

He featured 31 times at the heart of that defence but had already earned big praise from his manager at the time, Mauricio Pochettino.

The Argentine had signed him from Lyon and claimed:

“When we were following him and we were about to sign him we knew of his quality and we knew it would be very easy for him to adapt and establish himself within the league," he then continued:

“We already knew about his skill and his quality.”

Although he had impressed, he was prone to errors which shone through following his £20m move to Liverpool.

It seems that the Saints binned him off just in time to reap the rewards of his fine initial form upon coming to England, then watch him falter slightly at Anfield.

A path trodden by many others, from the south coast to Merseyside seemed like it would be a natural upgrade for a Reds side in transition.

Whilst he was not a complete flop, he did struggle throughout his career much to the delight of the media, who often highlighted particular performances where he had been deemed “useless” and a “defensive shambles”.

His career has stuttered and the eventual arrival of the aforementioned Dutch colossus all but sealed his fate at Liverpool.

He has since been playing his football for FC Zenit, only four years after he proclaimed himself as “one of the best defenders in the world”.

The Croatian made this claim just a year after a Liverpool fan had created a fifty-tweet thread detailing all his mistakes for the club.

A statement that drew ridicule, the 33-year-old was not a massive disappointment after leaving Southampton but he certainly never reached the domineering heights that saw him earn his initial move away.

It marks another example of how the club sold at the perfect time and got good money for a player they masqueraded as high quality. Compared to his earlier days in England to where he is now, he has flopped massively.