On Sunday the visit of Liverpool sees the return of Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren, but do they all deserve the same welcome back.
It will be easy for Saints fans to welcome back our returning trio with the same vitriol last observed when Marie Antoinette was dragged through the streets of Paris on the way to the guillotine, however would it be fair to tar all three with the same brush or for that matter conducive to a Saints victory, here we look at each individually and consider their status on the meter of hatred.
First to leave was Rickie Lambert, much has been made of his "dream" opportunity to join his boyhood club, there is of course that factor, but that would not be telling the whole story, there are some who would say that Rickie owes a lot to Saints and that being the case that he should have shown a bit more loyalty at a time when the club was clearly going through a difficult period with Pochettino leaving and seemingly all our players wanted by some club or other.
The time called for our senior players to lead by example and Rickie was the first to go, having said that the writing was already on the wall for Rickie at St Mary's and the likelihood was that this season he would have struggled to be a regular, age was catching up with him and never a fast player he was visibly slower in his last 12 months with Saints, that being the case it could be said that he deserved that last move to for a big payday, especially since for the bulk of his career he earned considerably less than most in the Saints squad had done.
So the verdict on Rickie was the move was the right one for both him and the club, only the circumstances and timing was perhaps wrong, Rickie should be warmly applauded and thanked for his service to Saints.
Adam Lallana is perhaps the most difficult, there is no doubt the manner of his leaving left a sour taste in the mouths of Saints fans, but was it really all Adam's fault, it should be remembered that he remained loyal to the club through the dark days of administration and relegation to League One and still remained so when we failed to bounce straight back, in many respects Lallana had given Saints good service for a far longer period than is average nowadays.
Again it comes down to circumstance and timing and there is a case that the club handled the situation badly at the time, they did not manage it, they did not communicate with the player according to some sources and preferred to ignore the overtones of Liverpool and hope that it would go away during the forthcoming World Cup, perhaps now with experience we would do things different, but we were caught in limbo and their was no experienced leadership in the boardroom to handle the situation.
The downside is that now some Saints fans almost spit when the name Adam Lallana is mentioned and the more the player himself tried to explain himself the deeper hole he dug himself into, the fact though is that he genuinely was being offered a dream move, the club was being offered far more than he was worth, he as a loyal Southampton player for so long deserved better.
This being the case I think that we need to accept that all parties, Lallana himself, Saints and Liverpool all should have behaved with more dignity and respect and we Saints fans have to move on and get closure, perhaps Adam will never be welcomed back at St Mary's with the affection he would like or even deserves for his service, but he does not deserve the Judas status some would bestow on him, the jury should be out, perhaps one day he will be applauded but perhaps this is not the occasion and certainly he does not deserve vitriolic abuse either, lets see his penalty be to see his new team drubbed and left trailing in our wake that would be a fair outcome overall.
Then there is Dejan Lovren, he had one solitary season at Southampton Football Club, it cannot be denied it was a good season although the first half was decidedly better than the first, but hisbehaviour was despicable, the statement that his "head was already in Liverpool" was crass and lacked class, it showed him up as a mercenary with no respect or feeling for what was at the time the people paying his wages.
Perhaps he has already had his comeuppance by the fact he has failed so miserably at Anfield, personally I think there are reasons for that which are beyond his control and Brendon Rodgers is more to blame, but the fact remains that he is only slightly more popular on Merseyside than he is in Southampton and part of that is because Liverpool fans recognise a wrong un when they see one and know that should he have had a good season his head would just as easily be in Barcelona or Manchester as Liverpool.
Lovren deserves every bit of vitriol that is aimed at him, however before one bit of abuse is hurled at him or indeed any of the other players we should remember that this could perhaps spur them on, before the game keep it to a minimum and once the game starts concentrate on supporting our own team rather than hating the opposition, lets get the game won and then we can worry about a bit of banter.
So there we have it there is more than meets the eye in this sorry tale and the three protagonists are all different in why they moved and the reasons behind it.