Sam Gallagher went to MK Dons on a season long loan with hoped that he would gain plenty of experience and return to St Mary's and push for a first team place, but that has not turned out to be the case.

Sam Gallagher had an early start to his first team career at Saints, in 13/14 injuries gave him his chance and he became a regular in Mauricio Pochettino's ssquad playing mainly off the bench and scoring against Norwich City.

The arrival of Ronald Koeman coinicded with an injury to Gallagher that kept him out for a long chunk of last season and he saw experienced attackers like Pelle, Sadio Mane & Shane Long jump above him in the pecking order, the signing of Juanmi this summer plus the return of Jay Rodriguez meant that his chances of a first team game were farther away than ever this term.

Saints realised this and therethore arranged a season long loan at newly promoted Championship side MK Dons, still only 19 it looked the ideal chance for the 6ft 4 striker to gain experience, score goals and show that he is the natural successor to Graziano Pelle.

Initially he got games for MK Dons starting 5 games and another 3 off the bench, his debut game saw him register 2 assists that lead the Dons faithful to believe they had signed a gem,however he failed to find the net in subsequent games and now has not had a singe minute on the field for MK since 19th September when he was substituted after 58 minutes, since then he has usualy been on the bench, but has not got on the field.

This has lead various MK Dons fans websites to question whether Gallagher should be at the club much longer claiming that he is unlikely to make any further appearances and given that the club would be paying a fair chunk of wages for him, they would be far better sending him back and find someone else who would be able to score the goals that take them up the league and clear of relegation.

Gallagher took his usual place on the bench for the Dons game at Brighton at the weekend and was again not used.

So perhaps it is time for Saints to take the bull by the horns and recall the young striker, it serves no purpose for him to train at MK Dons and then sit and watch them from the bench, he ould be better off back in our academy team or being found a club where he can get game time and gain the experience that he is not getting at MK.

Sometimes loan moves do not work out, that does not mean the player is bad, its just that sometimes a club is not right for a player and vice versa, time for Saints to rescue Sam Gallagher

Photo: Action Images

NYC_Saint added 07:07 - Nov 11 Apologies to be slightly off topic but regarding another youth player - what has happened to Jake Hesketh? He started one game last season and got injured. He looked lively (if a little raw) however I don't think I've seen him feature since...
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WestSussexSaint added 08:23 - Nov 11 NYC, I'm sure I saw him play in the U21 team earlier this season.
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RogerToye added 11:33 - Nov 11 Bring him back if he goes all season without playing and therefore scoring it would be poor for all concerned especially the lads confidence, he would be better on our bench where we are two short and no height if Pelle is out
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Jesus_02 added 11:35 - Nov 11 I would have preferred him to go to a winning L1 side than MK Dons. Having said that Saints reserves is probably a more competitive environment and would benefit from his presence
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DPeps added 18:15 - Nov 11 Sending players out on loan isn't always the best option. I know some fans think that Harrison Reed needs to go out on loan, but I think it's sensible for us to be cautious - and the Sam G situation shows that. You need to pick the right club - i.e. those that play a similar style to us and won't teach the young players bad habits, - and you need to make sure they're not going to benched for the lower league club as that'll hurt the player's confidence even more than being in our reserves.

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SaintBrock added 11:27 - Nov 12 We may need to get to grips with a far more unpalatable truth; the real elephant in the room if ever there was one... The players from our much vaunted Academy are probably now no longer good enough to get into our first team since we have raised our level to probably regular top six contenders. The bar has been raised and the Academy must improve it's standards of both scouting, recruitment and training to keep up. The current crop of lads who might well have been regarded as stars in the past no longer have the wherewithal to cut the mustard. Everything moves on and mindsets within the club and fans must move on as well. We are no longer the pipes and slippers Saints of old where quite good was good enough!

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