For me it was a big mistake letting Billy Sharp go out on loan for the season, perhaps his contribution might not have been great but it could have been vital.
When Billy Sharp arrived at St mary's he was one of the top marksman in the Championship, intially he struggled to get a game with Tadanari Lee preferred, but after Lee got injured in came Sharp and it has to be said his goals in that final third of the season pushed us over the line, he just had that knack of being in the right place at the right time and putting the ball in the net, more often than not they were goals that mattered as well.
It was clear in the summer that Sharp's chances might be limited in the Premier, firstly because Saints were going to play one up front and that was going to be either new signing Jay Rodriguez or Rickie Lambert, but Billy Sharp would surely be a good player to have on the bench and to come on and look for that late goal that might just change a game and for a team likely to be in a relegation dogfight, two games can change a season.
Initially that looked to be the case and he came on as sub in the opening two games of the season, up at Man City and at home to Wigan, but then came a strange bit of transfer wheeler dealing, in came Mayuka for £3.5 million and with all haste it seemed that Sharp was forced out of the club, in his position you would have thought that with a chance in the Premier league he would have preferred to have stayed at least till January and see if he got a chance, but seemingly on the verge of the deadline he was railroaded out to Nottingham Forest, in hindsight whoever had paid that £3.5 million clearly did not want Sharp in the way, despite there being room in the squad for him.
So after 20 minutes of Premier league football plus 85 minutes in the Carling Cup and a goal against Stevenage Sharp was gone for the season, allegedly at his request a clause in the contract stating that he couldnt be recalled.
I would say that he was not happy with being forced out and was clearly told in no uncertain terms that he would not be allowed a chance to prove himself should he choose to stay.
I would also say that Sharp's contribution in the opening two games was no more or less than Mayuka gave us in the next 36, indeed for the £3.5 million fee, plus a not insignificant amount in wages to not only Mayuka but I would hazard a guess we were subsidising Sharp at Forest, we got not a lot from that.
Personally although Sharp is not what you would call your Premier League glamour boy he does have that knack, as we know for his 2 hours and 10 minutes on the pitch we got zilch from Mayuka, if Sharp had got the same game time, as limited as it would have been, I would have had money on him getting a goal or two, there are plenty of games were that would have been vital, if he had done it once in the last game against Stoke that would have been worth two places and £1.5 million.
Why he was not allowed to get the chance to prove he could do a job in the Premier League is anyones guess, personally I would like to see him given that chance next season, Im not putting him forward as the next Suarez or anything, but football these days is a squad game and i think given our squad and the number of player who contributed little to our season in it, Sharp would certainly have been a better bet in one of the berths than half a dozen who occupied one.
Sadly I think his time at St Mary's is over, to bring him back into the squad would mean the finger would well and truly be pointed at someone as to why we brought in Mayuka and shipped off Sharp sharpish and that probably isnt going to happen.
So if he does go, good luck to Billy Sharp, he repaid his £1.8 million fee many times over with those vital goals in 11/12 season, sadly we know what thanks he got for that.