Saints squad for the new campaign has been boosted by the return of Jay Rodriguez after over a year out through injury.
Saints must have been worried that Jay Rodriguez might not be the same player after returning from his knee injury suffered at Manchester City towards the end of the 2013/14 season.
Then he was Saints top scorer, had broken into the England squad and as he blossomed into Saints best attacking threat he was a certainty to go to the World Cup in Brazil in the summer of 2014.
Then came that injury and there were those who thought that perhaps he would never play again, especially as his recovery dragged on and an initial diagnosis that he would be back in the side by January of this year suddenly stretched on so that he still was not quite ready as the season ended.
From a Saints point of view though perhaps the injury had one golden lining and that was that Rodriguez was not targeted by the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City & United etc in the summer of 2014 as many of his team mates where and he did not join the exodus.
It also made Saints supporters appreciate Jay more, he had showed touches of class in his first season, but for some he had clearly been signed to replace Rickie Lambert and they found that hard to accept, I remember writing a preview pre season in 2013 when i suggested that Jay would become our main attacking threat in the coming season and i was roundly lambasted and told in no uncertain terms that he would never be as good as Rickie Lambert.
Even when J Rod started scoring there were many who still didn't give him the credit he deserved and ironically it was only in the month or so before his injury that some woke up to the fact that he was perhaps the best player at the club, certainly second only to Adam Lallana.
His injury certainly made many realise how vital he was to the side.
Unlike some of them though Jay showed his loyalty and his thanks for Saints patience and signed a new deal this summer, rewarding Saints not only for their treatment of the player, but for a leap of faith in offering him the contract with no guarantee he would be the player that he had been.
It's still early days yet but so far in this pre season he has shown great form and that was crowned by a hat trick against KVV Quick last night, with due respect to the Dutch club they were not the toughest of oppoents, but Jay- Rod still had to score the goals and every one would have been a boost to his confidence and get him back in the habit of scoring again. But perhaps more importantly it would have given him faith that he still has the ability etc that he had before the injury, coming back from such a serious set back, he needs games and each game he completes will boost his confidence in his own ability to return the same player he was before.
In many respects its like having a new signing as he played no part in last season and that means the squad is strengthened without having to pay out a big outlay, so far Saints have been very thrifty spending around half of the money generated by the sale of Schneiderlin and Clyne, but if we had had to go out and buy a player the quality of Jay Rodriguez it would have cost us £20 million at least.
Now he is back and Saints have perhaps their most exciting talent since the late 80's/early 90's and the days of Shearer, Le Tissier & the Wallaces or even the Keegan/Channon/Moran era of 80-82.
If Ronald Koeman had not inherited Jay then he would almost certainly have wanted to sign him, like many of the Dutch managers signings J Rod is versatile, he is able to play as an out and out centre forward or as he was mostly employed for Saints as a wide attacking player, not only that but he is versatile in the way he plays, his goals came in different manners, Rickie Lambert scored a lot of goals but most of the could be described as trademark, with Rodriguez it's different, his goals covered the whole repertoire, he could run on to through balls, he could run at defenders, he could score from distance, he could tap them in, he could score from headers and as he showed at Palace he was not afraid of a challenge and could score whilst sat on his arse near the half way line.
So the return of Jay Rodriguez is a welcome boost for Saints and Ronald Koeman's only problem is how to utilise what is at his disposal and that is perhaps the most potent strike force outside of the top four clubs, if J Rod can recapture his form then it should be an exciting season ahead.