Billy Sharp is finally being treated properly by Saints after his deplorable treatment at the hands of those in charge of the club two years ago.
It could be said that Billy Sharp is the an who fired Saints to promotion to the Premier league, back in the spring of 2012 as Saints went into the run in it looked like West Ham and Reading would come in at the rails as our promotion bid started to falter slightly.
However it was Sharp who had joined from Doncaster in the January transfer window who hit form at the right time and scored the goals that kept us going and forced us over the line, Sharp hit 8 goals in the last 8 games, to put this in perspective Rickie Lambert his 3 in the same period, obviously Rickie had a great season and this cannot be denied, but as he struggled in the final run in, it was Sharp who made a telling contribution.
The reward for Billy was to be two fleeting substitute appearances in the Premier League in the opening couple of games and then to be forced out of the club for no apparent reason, yes Saints had signed Mayuka, but as the transfer window was about to close Sharp was pushed out of the door to Forest, this seemed to make little sense, we were short on firepower, we had places left in the squad, surely it would have been better to have kept Sharp in reserve.
Perhaps he is not a Premier quality player but one thing is for sure he is a predator in front of goal and a lucky player, in the first half of that season as we struggled with a new formation and what we now know were tensions in the club between manager and Chairman, there were many occasions in that season when we could have used Sharp off the bench to try and nick a goal or two in the dying moments of a game.
But for some reason the manager was not allowed to keep this option, Sharp was forced out as if someone was trying to justify why Mayuka had been signed, perhaps telling is that two years later that same person(s) still have seen no real justification why Mayuka was signed for a not insubstancial fee and Sharp sent to Coventry so to speak or more to the point, Nottingham, Reading & Doncaster.
For his part Sharp has been nothing other than professional, he has got on with it and when his loan spells ended returned to the club and got his head down.
This summer Ronald Koeman has been impressed by the way Sharp has worked hard in training and the friendly games he has played, however it is understood that he does not see Sharp as part of his long term plans, therefore at last Saints are doing the right thing by Sharp and are willing to let him leave on a free transfer should he be made an offer that suits him.
There is sure to be no shortage of offers for Billy and it is good that as he has a free transfer he can negotiate his own departure and therefore a larger chunk for a signing on fee than he would have got if Saints were to demand a fee.
It is good that the club has recognised the contribution that Billy Sharp made to it, it is possible that without him we would not be in the Premier league today, his treatment has been shoddy and it was pointed out by more than one journalist that how could Saints ask for loyalty from those that have now left, when those players have seen the loyalty shown to the likes of Sharp over the past two years and have probably realised that under the old board at least, there was no sentiment and therefore any player could be discarded when his usefulness ended.
So a big thanks to Billy Sharp, Im not going to try and pretent he was the greatest player that Saints ever had, but in many respects his short time here has been as important as many more illustrious names in our history.