Ex Saints player Charlie Austin is a very bitter man when it comes to Southampton Football Club, he never seems to pass up a chance to have a bad word to say about it and now it seems he has an opinion on James Ward Prowse's England chances.
Charlie Austin was a good buy for Saints, back in 2016 he arrived for a fee of £4 million, cheap due to his well publicised injury issues.
He scored the winner at Manchester United on his debut for the club, but that would be his last goal of the season and injury interrupted much of the rest of it.
The following season started well, but by December he was injured again and would only play the last couple of games of the season, missing out as Saints got to the league cup final.
2017/18 was a little better, but he again missed about a third of it through injury.
Ironically his final season would see him play more games than any other season, but he would score only 3 times, his final goal for the club being a late winner against Arsenal in Ralph Hasenhuttl's first home game in charge, the arrival of Danny Ings limiting his chances and then Che Adams arrival pushing him further down the pecking order.
He left for West Brom with Saints recouping the £4 million they had paid for him.
But it seems that he harbours a grudge against Southampton Football Club, why I don't know, in his 3 1/2 years at the club he started only 34 Premier League games, only around a quarter of those he could have played, another 37 appearances came off the bench.
He was paid well for his time at the club, but at 30 it was time to move on.
Since then he has turned up sporadically to comment on Saints and now he has spoken to Talk Sport regarding James Ward Prowse's World Cup prospects with England.
"Over the last two years he’s been club captain, he’s cemented himself in there, but certainly now, I think it’s time to leave,” he told TalkSPORT.
"This is why, because I think if he wants to go to the World Cup, he needs to be at a different football club than what Southampton are offering, the way they’re performing. I just think he’s more appealing if he’s at a different club.”
He then goes on to name a list of clubs who would be a good move for him: "I do think that he would fit in at an Arsenal, or a Leicester or Newcastle. Newcastle are on a re-build, the way they’re going, it wouldn’t surprise me if they’d thrown the dice at him.”
"I do think that he would fit in at an Arsenal, or a Leicester or Newcastle. Newcastle are on a re-build, the way they’re going, it wouldn’t surprise me if they’d thrown the dice at him.”
I'm sorry to say that I think that he is talking a load of tosh, James Ward Prowse is in the England squads for his work with Southampton Football Club, he has been a big fish in a small pond, no one can deny that, but he has matured and grown with Saints and he is getting the headlines and plaudits.
Whilst no one would deny he could go to a bigger club, one where he could get higher wages and play in Europe, would it benefit his England hopes.
I would say no, at St Mary's next season he can continue where he leaves off this season, he will have the opportunity to take free kicks and be the main man.
Would he have the same opportunity if he moved to any of the three clubs that Austin highlights, yes Newcastle are rebuilding and from that point of view it is going to be hit and miss, Leicester may offer European football next season, but in terms of domestic football are not better than Saints and Arsenal are still a work in progress.
With only a three month period in the Premier League before the World Cup squad is named, Ward Prowse would perhaps not be best served by going into a new environment, he would be better maintaining the status quo, doing what he has been doing that has pushed him into the reckoning.
At St Mary's he plays every game, would he do that if he went to another club, perhaps Leicester, but perhaps not at Newcastle or Arsenal, if he went to someone bigger then definitely not and to showcase his talents and prove to Gareth Southgate he can be a vital part of the squad he needs to be playing regularly and being the main man on free kicks etc.
Going into the unknown just before the World Cup will not benefit JWP, so from this perspective Charlie Austin has not thought this one through.
There is no doubt that JWP can play for a club that is of a higher status than Southampton, perhaps that will happen, but I truly believe that it will not benefit him to leave this summer, he would be better doing what he does best here and forcing his way into Gareth Southgate's plans.
If he does that then the World will be his oyster, having cemented himself in the England squad he could play for a bigger club than Arsenal, Newcastle & Leicester.