Remember when Southampton sacked Nigel Adkins?

It was a decision that shocked ex-Saints boss Lawrie McMenemy and also Rafa Benitez at the time, and also a truly harsh call from Nicola Cortese seeing as the then 47-year-old had guided the club to the Premier League from League One with successive promotions.

In somewhat of a symbolic moment, Southampton also completed the £4.2m signing of Vegard Forren on the same day that Adkins was handed his P45 - it would prove to be a move tainted by the ruthless dismissal.

The Norway international never actually make an impact for the club, despite snubbing a trial with Liverpool in order to make the move to St Mary's - he clearly had some attraction at the time.

In fact, Southampton never even got an appearance from the ex-Brighton defender, despite parting with a substantial sum for his signature.

Forren managed to make just three appearances for Southampton's U21 side before leaving St Mary's in 2013, just months after he had made the switch to the south coast - what a truly baffling transfer this was.

To expand on the theme of the article, it feels like there is some sort of symbolic link between the brutal nature of Adkins' dismissal, and the consequential failure of the Norwegian defender - almost as if Southampton were being punished for their treatment of the promotion specialist.

Forren is now enjoying his third spell at Molde, a club for whom he has made a whopping 369 appearances for.

In today's money, the 32-year-old's move to Southampton would be worth £4,849,559.14 using the Bank of England's inflation calculator.

At the very least, if you spend £4.2m on a player, you would expect them to make a senior appearance.

Call yourself a Premier League expert? How much did each of these big-money January signings cost?

However, this was a complete and utter disaster of a move for the Saints - Cortese surely shudders at the thought of it.

In other news, Southampton signing this 27-year-old could finally end Ralph Hasenhuttl's big dilemma...