Dean Hammond became the forgotten man of Southampton Football Club when the club returned to the Premier league back in 2012.
As Saints returned to the Premier League some of the players who had battled so hard to get them there found themselves surplus to requirements, indeed of the players likely to be involved tomorrow against Leicester City only 3, Cork, Schneiderlin and Fonte look like playing any part plus Kelvin Davis on the bench.
But perhaps of all the players who left soon after that promotion winning day against Coventry City at St Mary's perhaps Dean Hammond played the biggest part given that he was one of the Club's first signings after Markus Liebherr took over and for 3 seasons he was a mainstay in our side starting 111 league games plus another 13 as sub scoring 10 goals along the way, not to mention over 20 appearances in various cup competitions including a visit to Wembley for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final triumph.
To put all this in perspective Dean perhaps missed about a dozen games or so in total in this period in all competitions, literally for those three seasons he was at that club if Saints were playing Dean Hammond was involved.
His first season saw him virtually ever present after joining in the opening weeks of the season, the next which saw us promoted back to the Championship saw him start 40 matches plus another as sub scoring 4 goals, not a prolific strike rate but vital in their contribution, perhaps the most vital being the second goal in a 3-1 win at Bournemouth.
The promotion season to the Championship saw him make a vital contribution,he started 31 times plus 13 as sub with his only goal coming on the opening day of the season against Leeds United as we won 3-1.
But the euphoria of winning promotion to the Premier league would soon die down and the club made it quite clear that Dean had no future in the squad for the coming season, in the opening two games he was not even on the bench and although he did start against Stevenage in the League cup within a couple of days he was shipped out to Brighton on loan for the season where he was a regular in their side for the season.
In the summer of 2013 he became a free agent and left St Mary's quietly and with little fanfare, given that it was over a year since he had pulled on a first team shirt in a competitive game at St Mary's his farewell to the Saints fans had been that appearance at Stevenage in front of 900 or so.
Many thought he would go to Brighton but it was to the East Midlands and leicester that he headed and once again he helped a club to Promotion to the Premier League , having turned 30 he was not a first team regular, indeed he only started 7 games plus another 22 as sub.
Perhaps Dean thought that again he would find himself an outcast and that he would be that close to a top flight appearance without actually playing, so perhaps he was relieved when he came off the bench on the opening day draw against Everton so that he could finally say he had played in the Premier, but his fairytale would not stop there, since then he has started 7 games for the Foxes, exactly the same number last season and he is enjoying a swansong as he approaches his 32nd birthday in march.
So on Saturday hopefully he will get the chance to run out on the St Mary's pitch again, when he does I hope that Southampton supporters reward him with the warm welcome that his contribution to this football club deserves, such is modern football that perhaps only 2/3 of the capacity crowd tomorrow will have seen him play with any regularity, however those that have should thank him for his contribution to our resurgence in the game and those that perhaps didn't see him play should join in, because without Dean Hammond perhaps none of what they are enjoying in the Premier League would have been possible.