In the first half of the season Joe Aribo looked like he was going to have a great season for Southampton after signing from Glasgow Rangers for an initial fee of £6 million, but under Nathan Jones he seems to be totally out of favour.
Saints fans liked the look of Joe Aribo when he first arrived, he buzzed around and scored 2 goals in his opening 8 Premier League games, but then the form of the team started to drop and Aribo's contributions were a little less.
For Ralph Hasenhuttl's last game against Newcastle he was a 64th minute sub, coming on with the score at 3-0 and the game over.
Under Nathan Jones he has been mainly on the bench, getting only 8 minutes in the new managers first game up at Anfield and since then his game time has been limited with his only start in the Premier League under Jones in 6 games coming at Fulham.
For the last two Premier League games he has been an unused sub, despite the fact that we were chasing a 1-0 deficit against Villa and needed to get an equaliser, Aribo remained on the bench and saw the likes of full back Romain Perraud used as a wingback rather than someone more suited to creating and scoring chances as himself.
Last night against Newcastle he might have hoped to get a chance, but he found himself not even in the matchday squad, with the arrival of Orsic and Charly Alcatraz he seems to have dropped well down the pecking order, so much so that there isn't room for him on the bench now with other attacking options such as Edozie, Elyounoussi,, Djenepo etc all jumping ahead of him.
In fairness when he has played he has not looked the player he was in the first few months of the season, so what has gone wrong.
Whilst it is easy to pinpoint that he does not seem to suit what Nathan Jones wants in his squad, indeed Jones himself has said that Arbo is a "victim of circumstance" more than anything else, his form had dropped as mentioned in the later days of Ralph.
But you do have to ask the question why with experience needed in what is going to be a tough few months, why he has not been utilised much under Jones.
Our issues are all about "End Product" or rather the lack of it and Aribo has shown in the past that he has it, whereas others on the bench last night against Newcastle or in the starting line up for that matter have produced less this season than Aribo in the Prmeier League.
Rumours abound that Aribo could be making a quick exit from the club in this transfer window, either permanently or out on loan, the latter would be silly, truth is you never know when you might need him,
But you get the feeling that Nathan Jones has already made his mind up about Aribo and the player himself is well aware of that and is demotivated knowing his chances will be limited.
So is Aribo's Southampton career going to be over almost before it has truly started or will he go on to show the manager he is wrong and perhaps play a key role in the coming months.