Danny Fox is set to join Championship club Bolton Wanderers on loan till January
The Scottish International looks to have sealed a loan move to the Lancashire club, initially till January but with an option for Bolton to make the move permanent when the transfer window opens again in the New Year.
Fox has unfortunately become one of those players who whatever they do, the crowd will make them the scapegoat, in the promotion season of 2011/12 Fox was a vital component of the Saints side and was a major source of assists, with Rickie Lambert especially benefitting from Fox's ability to hit a decent ball from a dead ball situation, not least in the Derby game at Fratton Park in December 2011 when he put in a ball that meant that Lambert couldn't miss and indeed he didn't.
However towards the end of the season Fox found himself exposed at the back as Saints promotion campaign started to falter, it was clear that Fox was far better going forward than he was defending, but in fairness he wasn't helped by a lack of cover both in front of him and from his centre halves.
At the start of 2012/13 many Saints fans called for the introduction of Luke Shaw, despite the fact than no one had seen him play in a competitive match, Nigel Adkins resisted the calls initially perhaps knowing that his defence was ill equipped for what would become a nightmare start in the Premier, introducing the youngster as the games got easier and the team had found its feet more, this may have benefitted Shaw who was allowed to find his feet in the team without too much pressure, but definitely didn't benefit Fox who found himself alongside several other players bearing the brunt of the fans wrath.
But he continued to do his job for the team whenever called upon although quite clearly the writing was on the wall.
Now is perhaps the right time for Fox to be on his way, last season Saints didn't have the cover at full back that they needed and with Luke Shaw being a little injury prone at times it was essential to have cover in this position, with the emergence of Callum Chambers, Saints have the option of moving Nathan Clyne to left back if Shaw has to miss games, so it makes sense for both player and indeed the Club to let him go out on loan.
Some will cheer this news, but they are have very short memories, Fox was a part of a side that won promotion to the Premier league, his only real crimes where that he took the place of a popular player in Dan Harding and then in the eyes of some was blocking the progress of Luke Shaw, the fact is Fox played his part in the promotion campaign, he was only behind Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert in terms of assists, would w ehave got promoted without him, possibly so, but you would have to ask the question would Lambert in particular have scored so many goals and the answer is probably no.
Fox is probably amongst a growing breed of players who are more than good enough for the Premier League but not quite Premier League standard on a week in week out basis, although when he was called into the side he let no one down and was good cover for Shaw.
Danny Fox deserves to leave with the praise of the fans, lesser players have received far more gratitude for doing a lot less than Fox has done for this club, so he at least deserves that, good luck to him at Bolton and indeed the rest of his career.