James Ward-Prowse is dreaming of emulating Southampton 1976 hero Bobby Stokes when Claude Puel’s men take on Manchester United in Sunday’s EFL Cup final.
Stokes famous scored the only goal when then-second division Saints stunned United at Wembley to land the FA Cup 41 years ago.
Like Stokes, midfielder Ward-Prowse was born along the M27 in Portsmouth and grew up supporting Saints’ bitter rivals.
England under-21 captain Ward-Prowse said: “It’s obviously a nice affiliation to have with Bobby Stokes.
“Hopefully that trend can continue for this final. It would be an incredibly special moment if it was to happen.
“Every kid grows up doing that. I remember kicking the ball around the garden with my brother, re-enacting famous goals and moments.
“They’re the sort of things you think about, and that built the foundation for me as a young professional to make sure I could get myself in those positions.
“We’ve got ourselves here and we need to make the most of it.
“But the most important thing is making sure the team wins, regardless of who scores the winning goal or anything like that. The team comes first.”
Ward-Prowse is Saints’ longest serving player after joining as an eight-year-old schoolboy and was in the crowd when they won the JP Trophy final in 2010.
He says this weekend’s return to Wembley shows how far the club have come since almost going bust nine years ago.
The midfielder added: “‘I think it’s going to be a great moment. As players, that’s the pinnacle of your club careers.
“You all want to be lifting silverware at Wembley for your club. I think for me especially, coming through the club’s Academy, it’s going to mean a hell of a lot.
“Hopefully we can be on the winning side. I saw the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy unfold, and hopefully we can be on the winning side again.
“There was a real buzz about the place then. As a young player, you could feel the energy from the first team coming down to us.
“It was a great motivation for us to reach those sorts of heights. I managed to get into the first team and it’s crazy to think I’ll be with the first-team there at Wembley now as well.
“It would mean everything to me to lift the trophy. It would be a great honour. “But it’s going to be a very tough game. We’re not there yet. We need to make sure we go out and give it our all and make sure we get there.”
Jose Mourinho expects influential Manchester United duo Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Michael Carrick to miss the League Cup final against Saints through injury.
Despite Wembley looming large, and boasting a 3-0 first-leg lead in St Etienne, the Portuguese picked a surprisingly strong line-up in Wednesday’s Europa League last-32 clash.
Mkhitaryan’s deft touch secured a 1-0 win in France but progress to the last-16 draw came at a cost for United - and not just because Eric Bailly was sent off in the second half.
Match-winner Mkhitaryan limped off after 25 minutes with a hamstring issue and veteran midfielder Carrick sustained a second-half calf complaint, putting both players’ hopes of facing Southampton on Sunday in jeopardy.
“Honestly, I don’t think he is fit,” Mourinho said of Mkhitaryan.
"I think him and Michael are both out, but this is based on my experience, not based on my medical knowledge and not based on tests and what they have obviously to do tomorrow and after tomorrow.
“I think no chance but I repeat it’s just my experience. A calf, a hamstring, even if it is minor, minor, some fibres damaged, I think out.”
Mourinho does not believe the injuries were due to the quality of the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard pitch - “it was playable, not dangerous,” he said - and believes it was more to do with the build-up of matches.
There is little let-up on the horizon and the United boss was irked by the Football Association having already announced the FA Cup quarter-final with Chelsea will be on Monday, 13 March, sandwiched between their Europa League last-16 first and second legs.
Mourinho was perplexed by the decision to announce the date before Friday’s European draw and took a shot at the organisers, as well as a swipe at rivals Manchester City after their much-changed side last season lost 5-1 at Chelsea in the FA Cup.
Asked if he was worried the FA Cup scheduling would hinder his chances of progress, Mourinho said: "Of course and I feel really surprised that the decision is made before our draw in Europe.
"Because in this moment nobody knows where we play, nobody knows where the first and second matches are.
"Imagine we play Chelsea on Monday and then we have to go to the second match in Europe in Russia, Turkey or Greece.
"I think once more the interests, they go in front of the clubs and English football’s interests, and nobody cares about it. But this is what I have.
"I cannot play against Chelsea with the second team. I cannot play against Chelsea with the under-21s like Manchester City did last year. I cannot do that - we are Manchester United.
"I don’t do that as Manchester United manager. I don’t do that to the FA Cup because the FA Cup is not guilty of these decisions.
"The FA Cup is beautiful, the competition is historical. I have to treat Manchester United supporters and the FA Cup in the right way.
"I cannot go there with under-21s. Probably they would deserve it, but I don’t do that, so what is going to happen is an accumulation of matches.
"People playing a lot of matches, I have to make some rotation but some of the boys will have to play in all these consecutive matches.
“And if situations like the Mkhitaryan one or the Carrick one happen, they happen.”
Meanwhile, St Etienne boss Christophe Galtier said the “quality of the opponent” was the deciding factor across the two legs and was proud of the club’s display.
“We knew that if they would have scored it would have been a mission impossible for us,” he said. "They managed to do it on a small occasion, a small opportunity.
"From that moment on, the achievement was not possible for us.
“I would love for my players to have won this game for them, first of all, but also for the fans because they would have deserved it. The fans were just exceptional tonight.”
From times of anguish, to Premier League, Europa League football, and now the potential of a first piece of silverware in 41 years.
Southampton’s journey from the depths of League One to an EFL Cup final against Manchester United has been nothing short of extraordinary, and one player - their longest-serving player - has endured the turbulent ride with them.
Typically such an accolade would be boasted by a seasoned and experienced player, but for Southampton it is represented through someone a little different. At just 22 years of age, James Ward-Prowse veteran of sorts. The old man. He has witnessed the Saints’ transition and rise from third-tier scraps to gracing the fields of the Premier League, and is now on the verge of winning their first piece of silverware since that famous 1-0 FA Cup triumph over Manchester United in 1976.
When questioned on his longevity, he breaks out in a smile.
“I think it’s obviously a nice accolade to have, it’s been an amazing journey so far. It’s crazy how quickly time goes from joining the first team at 16, and then obviously to be where I am today, I’m very lucky to be a part of it and hopefully the journey can continue.”
Ward-Prowse has been a part of the St Mary’s set up since the age of eight and made his first senior appearance for the club in a League Cup fixture against Crystal Palace in October 2011, aged just 16.
When he joined the club in 2003, Southampton had been in the top flight of English football for the past 25 years. Though at times this record seemed tenuous with the Saints often narrowly missing out on relegation, it was only a dismal showing in the 2004/05 Premier League campaign, and a final-day defeat by Manchester United, that finally closed the curtain on their time at the top, triggering a descent that would only halt in League One four seasons later.
The England U-21 captain though, always remained confident he would play at the highest level with the club and paid tribute to the hard work that has been put in on and off the pitch to make that a reality. “I was always confident in myself and in my ability and in the club as well. I think the club have been very good to young players and not only myself but they’re a number of players who have come through the academy into the first team,” he stated.
“It’s a credit to the club, I think they’ve got the right people off the pitch making sure the club can have that stability and that foundation to go out on the pitch and progress. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that prepare us for match days and to win football matches. It’s not very often that you see a club come from League One and have that development so quickly into the Europa league as well
“I don’t think you’ll see many clubs doing what Southampton have done”, he claimed, “But again I think the clubs got the right people and the right players and they’ve installed the right managers to make sure that the club can progress [and] I think it’s now a worldwide club.”
Growing up as a devoted Portsmouth fan, like his family, it wasn’t all so easy for the 22-year-old, though. He admitted at such a young age, the pressure of choosing to play for Pompey’s fiercest rivals was something he had to overcome.
“When I was younger it was a little bit tougher making that decision, growing up a lot of my friends were Portsmouth fans [but] that’s the way football goes and that’s the career path I chose. It was a tough decision from a young age but it was the right decision from where I’m sitting now.”
Of course, Southampton’s tenacious midfielder wouldn’t be the first Portsmouth boy to represent them in a final. Bobby Stokes spent nine years with the Saints but there was one moment which defined his whole Southampton career – scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final against Sunday’s opponents in 1976. For that fleeting moment alone, his name remains woven into the folklore of Southampton FC as do the rest of the 76-winning team.
With the prospect of winning their first major trophy since then, Ward-Prowse is fully aware the team could be on the cusp of being comparably revered for potentially the next 20, 30 years and is hopeful of replicating Stokes’ goal.
“You only have to walk down the corridor and see pictures of the club’s legends and things like that. As daily reminders, especially for academy players walking through there as well, these are the people who have been through the club and these are the successful times and we all want to be part of that as well.”
JAMES Ward-Prowse is all too aware that a fellow lad from Portsmouth once did something remarkable for Saints at Wembley.
“I’ve heard a little something like that,” the Portsmouth-born midfielder smiles, as he sits down to talk at the club’s Staplewood Training Ground ahead of the League Cup final against Manchester United.
A grin stretches across Ward-Prowse’s face at the mention of one Bobby Stokes, the scorer of Saints’ winning goal in the 1976 FA Cup final victory over United.
The irony was that the dinky forward, who sadly died in 1995 at 44 years of age, like Ward-Prowse, was born in the city of Saints’ fiercest rivals, little more than 30 minutes east down the M27.
In fact, Stokes had nearly joined Pompey earlier in the 1975/76 season and was still on the transfer list when he latched onto Jim McCalliog’s flick and with a swing of his left peg carved his name into Saints’ history forever.
Now, there’s another boy from down the road that wants to follow in Stokes’ footsteps.
Deadball specialist Ward-Prowse, who grew up as a Pompey fan, dreams of curling a free-kick over the United’s wall and into the net at Wembley for Saints.
“That’s my territory,” he says. “Hopefully we can win a free kick.
“Regardless of where you’re from, you put the Southampton shirt on and you want to do your best.”
The 22-year-old went to Wembley as a fan in 2008 when Pompey won the FA Cup and was once a season ticket holder with his dad John and older brother Ben at Fratton Park.
Watching Harry Redknapp’s side triumph 1-0 over Cardiff in ’08 is inspiration for Ward-Prowse as he aims for the first major silverware of his career.
“The final was a great experience to go to, as a big fan, and watch teams win silverware, not only as a supporter but as a young player of the game,” he said.
“That gives you inspiration, and to be in and around that environment, and hopefully that can be replicated against Manchester United.”
Ward-Prowse gave up his Fratton Park season ticket and signed for Saints at the age of eight.
At one point he had a choice to play for Portsmouth or Saints.
In the end there was only one choice for Ward-Prowse.
“I think when I was younger it was a little bit tougher making that decision,” he said. “Obviously growing up a lot of friends of mine were Portsmouth fans, but that’s the way football goes and that’s the career path that I chose.
“It was a tough decision at a young age, but it was the right decision from where I’m sitting now.”
Indeed, at the tender age of 22, he is now the longest-serving member of the Saints squad – having made around 160 first team appearances – and is captain of England Under-21s.
Ward-Prowse made his debut as a 16-year-old in a League Cup tie against Crystal Palace in 2011 and has since grown into an increasingly cultured and versatile midfielder.
He has since helped Saints to become established in the Premier League and qualify for the Europa League in the last two seasons.
“It’s obviously a nice accolade to have,” he said, about being the longest-serving Saints player. “It’s been an amazing journey so far and it’s crazy how quickly the time goes.
“Joining the first team at 16-17 and to be where I am today.
“I’m very lucky to be part of it and hopefully the journey can continue.”
Ward-Prowse, as an academy player and then first teamer, has been ever-present as the club, under the ownership of the Liebherr family, has burst from the doom and gloom of the League One era into a Premier League force aiming to play in the Europa League for a third successive campaign.
He was absent, however, during one of the most significant moments as Saints started to emerge resurgent.
Ward-Prowse and his academy team-mates were away playing a match as Alan Pardew’s side memorably defeated Carlisle United 4-1 in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final at Wembley in 2010 in front of 44,000 Saints fans.
With Ward-Prowse now a fully fledged first teamer and Saints playing in the elite, he and the club are competing on a different level entirely since 2010 as they aim for League Cup glory.
The academy graduate reflects on the well-documented rise back through the ranks.
“I think it’s strange… it’s not very often you see a club come from League One and have that development so quickly into the Europa League as well,” Ward-Prowse says.
“In many ways you won’t see many clubs doing what Southampton have done, but, again, the club’s got the right people and the right players and installed the right managers to make sure it can progress.
He continues: “It’s credit to the club. They’ve got the right people off the pitch making sure the club can have that stability and that foundation to go out on the pitch and progress.
“There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure come a match day we’re prepared for winning a football match. That’s been evident for a few years now.”
“You can see the training ground’s grown massively,” he adds. “Not only the training ground but the club as well. It’s a worldwide club now and people want to emulate the way the club does things.”
Saints have moved home from The Dell to St Mary’s, built a £30m training complex at Staplewood, suffered numerous downs and celebrated many highs in the 41 years since they last won a major trophy.
But, despite all those changes, the echoes of that famous win in 1976 still reverberate around the bowels of the club’s state of the art facilities.
Remembering Lawrie McMenemy’s famous side and every other iconic moment is something that is important to Ward-Prowse.
“I think that’s important to remember. The club wouldn’t be where it is now without that sort of history and that sort of foundation of success,” he explains.
“You only have to walk down the corridors to see pictures of the club legends and things like that as daily reminders, especially as academy players walking through there, these are the sorts of people who’ve been through the club and these are the successful times and we want to be a part of that.”
While looking up to the legends of Saints’ bygone eras, Ward-Prowse also made role models out of Chelsea legend Frank Lampard and Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard.
“Gerrard and Lampard in central midfield epitomise everything a player should be – the aggression, scoring goals, passing, set piece ability,” he said.
“It’s something that I’ve always watched and wanted to emulate.”
But talking about his idols only goes so far for Ward-Prowse because he is out to make his own stamp on the game.
That is something that has been evident since he was a youngster.
While playing for Saints’ academy, Ward-Prowse made a crucial decision that he feels eventually helped him establish himself in the first team.
As a skinny teenager, Ward-Prowse took a chance to go training with non-league outfit Havant & Waterlooville.
It was a good friend of his, Tony Mount, a former non-league player and manager of Havant Town and Newport Isle of Wight, that helped set-up the sessions with the Hawks.
“I was about 14 or 15 at the time and growing up I wasn’t always the toughest kid,” he explains.
“I didn’t really like tackling. I spoke to my dad and brother and the rest of my family and thought it would be a good chance for extra training sessions.
It was something that helped the youngster develop.
“They didn’t hold back, they gave me the sort of feeling of men’s football and I think that’s the sort of thing that helped me get into the first team,” he adds.
“It’s the lads banter side of it. It’s not just the physical contact but the swearing, the aggression of it as well and especially at that level as well it’s more highlighted.
“It was make or break of whether I could handle the men’s game and it helped me when it came to my Premier League debut as well.”
Now, Ward-Prowse will come up against the world’s most expensive player in Paul Pogba at one of the most iconic stadiums of the planet.
Some far throw from cold nights training at Westleigh Park.
Yet, through it all, there has been one constant for Ward-Prowse: family.
A large band of relatives attend every game. There will be 14 of them at Wembley.
His dad, John, a barrister, who took his young sons to Fratton Park to watch Portsmouth, will be “will be the first to stand up and celebrate” if Ward-Prowse or Saints score.
“It’s important for them to come. They’ve helped me from a young age, so it’s good to see them supporting me,” he says about his family.
If he starts at Wembley he’ll also have a band of 32,000 Saints fans at his back urging him to become another boy from down the road to become a Saints cup hero.
With one glorious stroke of his left boot, Bobby Stokes scored the most famous goal in Southampton’s history to win the 1976 FA Cup final.
Now another Portsmouth lad who has made the transition to their bitter rivals is hoping to enter Saints folklore.
James Ward-Prowse was born and bred a Pompey boy — a season ticket holder until 2007 — but chose Southampton when he was eight.
He was still on the Wembley terraces in 2008 when Portsmouth beat Cardiff to lift the FA Cup, but when he imagined himself out there in a final one day it was in red and white stripes. An ambition that will be realised in the League Cup final on Sunday when he faces Manchester United, the same opponents Stokes & Co overcame to stun the nation.
‘Regardless of where you’re from you put on the Southampton shirt and want to do your best. That’s no different from a league game to a final,’ Ward-Prowse says.
‘Growing up a lot of my friends were Portsmouth fans, but that’s the career path I chose. It was a tough decision at a young age, but it was the right decision.
‘You only have to walk down the corridors to see pictures of the club legends as daily reminders. We want to be a part of [the successful times].
‘It’s important to [grasp that history]. The club wouldn’t be where it is now without that foundation of success. We can hopefully continue that against Manchester United.’
Ward-Prowse’s route to the top has not been straightforward. His technical ability was never in question — as soon as he could walk he kicked anything that resembled a ball, even his teddy bear — but he was a slight teen and confesses he struggled with the ‘banter side’ and being aggressive.
Ward-Prowse is academic and had a well-off upbringing. His barrister father John thought ‘he was a bit of a wuss in the tackle’.
‘Growing up I wasn’t always the toughest,’ Ward-Prowse, 22, admits, ‘I didn’t really like tackling. My dad thought it would be good to toughen up.’
He had private sessions with Tony Mount, who managed Havant Town, to sort out his tackling. And dad John enlisted hard-as-nails former Portsmouth defender Billy Gilbert, who hurled him around by his bib.
‘They didn’t hold back,’ Ward-Prowse says. ‘They gave me the feeling of being in men’s football. That helped me as a young player getting to the first team and making my debut at 16. I don’t regret it at all.
‘There were loads of things; the banter side of it, not only the physical contact of being tackled but the swearing, the aggression. Especially at that level it’s highlighted. It was good to get a taste of that early on, it gave me a good foundation when I broke into the first team. ’
It is surprising to hear, then, that while early comparisons were made to David Beckham — due to their similar set-piece technique — it was tough-tackling central midfielders such as Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard who he wanted to emulate.
‘They epitomise everything that a player needs to be: aggression, scoring goals, range of passing, set-piece ability, that’s something I’ve always wanted to replicate,’ Ward-Prowse says.
‘But I want to be my own player. I want to put my own stamp on the game.’
A Chinese bank are ready to make a £225million offer for Southampton after a proposed takeover from a rival Far East firm collapsed.
Sportsmail can reveal that CITIC Securities — China’s largest investment bank — have drafted the terms of a takeover bid and are set to make a formal approach once the club’s period of exclusivity with Lander Sports Development expires at the end of this month.
Lander disclosed to the Shenzhen stock exchange on January 26 that they had agreed a deal in principle to purchase a stake in the Saints, and Swiss owner Katharina Liebherr subsequently reassured fans that any agreement would be ‘in the best interests of the club’.
However, Sportsmail understands the Lander deal has hit a major snag regarding stock-exchange listing rules, which do not count player trading potential in the overall value of a club. As a result, Southampton may not be seen as a profitable business venture in the eyes of the stock exchange, precluding listed companies from investing.
This has alerted several groups looking for a way into the Premier League, and there is a queue of investors bidding to open talks with Liebherr, including three Chinese firms and one American.
And state-owned CITIC Securities are hoping to jump to the front of that queue by presenting the term sheet of their £225m offer. We understand that British-based mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Blackbridge Cross Borders are acting as an intermediary and talks have already taken place in the City of London, with Swiss financial services company UBS acting for the Liebherrs.
Southampton — who face Manchester United in the final of the EFL Cup at Wembley on Sunday — are seen as one of the most attractive takeover propositions in England.
The club has been a model of success since being rescued by the Liebherr family in 2009 and within three years they had climbed from League One to the Premier League.
Liebherr, who inherited the club from her late father Markus in 2010, confirmed last month that she was open to a ‘potential partnership’.
However, CITIC Securities are looking to gain full control.
They are part of the group which also includes CITIC Capital who, along with China Media Capital, acquired a 13 per cent stake in Manchester City at a cost of £265m in December 2015.
There was no comment given by Southampton last night.
And Ward-Prowse wants to score the winner against United just like Stokes did in 1976 when Second Division Saints stunned United to win the FA Cup. Like Stokes, midfielder Ward-Prowse was born in Portsmouth and grew up supporting Saints’ bitter rivals. “It’s obviously a nice affiliation to have with Bobby Stokes,” said the England Under-21 captain. “Hopefully that trend can continue for this final. It would be an incredibly special moment if it was to happen. “Every kid grows up doing that. I remember kicking the ball around the garden with my brother, re-enacting famous goals and moments.
“We’ve got ourselves here and we need to make the most of it” “They’re the sort of things you think about, and that built the foundation for me as a young professional to make sure I could get myself in those positions. “We’ve got ourselves here and we need to make the most of it. “But the most important thing is making sure the team wins, regardless of who scores the winning goal or anything like that. The team comes first.”
Ward-Prowse is Saints’ longest serving player after joining as an eight-year-old and was in the crowd when they won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at Wembley in 2010. He says this weekend’s return to Wembley shows how far the club have come since almost going bust nine years ago. “‘I think it’s going to be a great moment. As players, that’s the pinnacle of your club careers,” he said. “You all want to be lifting silverware at Wembley for your club. I think for me especially, coming through the club’s Academy, it’s going to mean a hell of a lot. “Hopefully we can be on the winning side. I saw the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy unfold, and hopefully we can be on the winning side again.
“There was a real buzz about the place then. As a young player, you could feel the energy from the first team coming down to us. “It was a great motivation for us to reach those sorts of heights. I managed to get into the first team and it’s crazy to think I’ll be with the first-team there at Wembley now as well. “It would mean everything to me to lift the trophy. It would be a great honour. “But it’s going to be a very tough game. We’re not there yet. We need to make sure we go out and give it our all and make sure we get there.”
Saints fans are being offered free bus travel across the city on Sunday - provided they wear the club’s colours.
First Southampton is getting behind Saints’ EFL Cup Wembley showdown with Manchester United this Sunday by offering any fan wearing a Saints shirt free travel across its network.
Saints are vying to win their first major piece of silverware since 1976, when they won the FA Cup.
Marc Reddy, managing director of First Southampton, said: "The whole city is so proud of the football team for reaching the EFL Cup final - it’s one of the biggest achievements in their recent history.
"We know that before, during and after the game, the city is going to be buzzing with Saints fans.
"By offering free travel around the city, it’ll give everyone a chance to enjoy the match and not have to worry about parking or having a drink.”
Those who can’t make it to Wembley are now being encouraged to come out “in force” to support the team.
Chrissie Bainbridge, First Southampton’s business performance director, said: "Despite the boys being away in London for the final, we hope that our offer will encourage supporters to come out in force and create an atmosphere like it’s a home game.
“This has the potential to be one of the best days in Southampton’s footballing history and we want fans to support the fans to celebrate responsibly. Come Sunday, the mood in Southampton is going to be amazing and we can’t wait to be a part of that.”
HE’S nearly 3ft tall, wears a top hat and was witness to one of Southampton’s greatest moments.
Now the lucky Saints mascot has been brought out of retirement as his owner travels thousands of miles across the globe to get him out of the loft and to watch the team at Wembley.
Steve Eastman, an IT director who now lives in Singapore, was only 10 when his grandad bought the dog-shaped mascot from a neighbour - who had previously won it in a raffle at the Maybush pub just after the 1976 Wembley victory.
Since then it’s been languishing in his mum’s loft gathering dust as Steve, 51, and his brother Dan Price, 46, follow their team’s ups and downs from thousands of miles away, only brought out on special occasions - such as the 2003 Cardiff League Cup final, and neighbour Barbara Sandy’s 90th birthday.
Although now living far from his native Maybush, Steve is still a season ticket holder and has travelled to Israel, Milan and Liverpool to watch his team at the top of their game
Now he will be travelling back to the UK just to watch Saints at Wembley - although his brother Dan who lives in Australia can’t make it back for the match.
He said: “My first match was in the mid-seventies at the Dell. The mascot was bought by my grandad for me and my brother Dan and it’s part of the family - my son’s a Southampton supporter as well.”
And although he has offered it to the team to take with them on their bus as they make their way to Wembley for the fourth time - they have politely declined.
As previously reported by the Daily Echo Steve offered to lend the lucky mascot to Saints bosses in 1979 and in 2003 - but the mascot had to put up with just watching from the comfort of his sofa.
When Southampton face Manchester United in the EFL Cup final at Wembley on Sunday, they will surely need the goals of new signing Manolo Gabbiadini. Adam Bate puts the spotlight on the Italian striker who has done things a little differently in his career…
For Manolo Gabbiadini, the journey taking him to a Wembley cup final against Manchester United began in earnest when named in a senior squad for the first time in 2009. The Italian forward sat on the bench for Atalanta’s trip to Juventus on Sunday, May 17. The next day he was back at the garage near Bergamo to do his shift. He was working as a mechanic.
Gabbiadini was still there the following March as he continued his part-time apprenticeship alongside his uncle and cousins. His speciality was handling the tyres. “I kept going there because engines are my passion,” he once said. “I was proud to go to work. It was more fun than a job.” Seven years on and that also applies to his start at Southampton.
Just two games in and last month’s £14.5m signing from Napoli has already scored three goals - an early debut strike against West Ham followed up with two in the 4-0 away win at Sunderland. The fans duly won over, Gabbiadini is now Southampton’s third-highest scorer in the Premier League this season and needs only three more to hit the top of that list.
In other words, with Charlie Austin injured, he is exactly what was required as Saints try to win without the goals of Graziano Pelle and Sadio Mane. He is the box threat that Claude Puel was after and, crucially, the sort of hybrid forward who can marry the key qualities of both Austin and Shane Long. Gabbiadini can link the play and provide a threat in behind.
“Gabbiadini is a good technical player,” says Puel. “It is important to play high up the pitch and have many options. He is always available and gives good solutions behind the defence with good runs. I think step by step he learns different possibilities with the tactics, to defend together, and also in attack he gives good solutions in the play.”
The threat has been obvious with Gabbiadini firing off 11 shots in just 163 minutes so far. But interestingly, Puel also pointed to his hold-up play against West Ham. “I think he lost just six balls of 33 that went to him and for a striker that is very good as there is always little space,” he said. This is a striker who can not only get the ball in good areas but keep it too.
New team-mate Nathan Redmond has also highlighted his link-up play and tactical awareness as well as his finishing ability. It underlines the fact that, in more ways than one, Gabbiadini is a difficult man to pin down. This is the tall man, a basketball fanatic no less, who made his name at Sampdoria playing on the right wing.
He is the striker from Calcinate, home town of legendary defender Pietro Vierchowod, who counts two other defenders, Ciro Ferrara and Sinisa Mihajlovic, as mentors. Asked to name inspirations and he namechecks not Italian forwards but Juninho Pernambucano and Pierre van Hooijdonk because, like old coach Mihajlovic, he fancies himself as a free-kick specialist.
He is an Italy international, having featured for the Azzurri under Antonio Conte, but is not even the most celebrated footballer in his family as elder sister Melania is already in Italy’s hall of fame. And it is the man she once named as her brother’s favourite coach who stands in Gabbiadini’s Wembley way on Sunday - Jose Mourinho and his Manchester United side.
Gabbiadini was actually linked with a move to Manchester United as long ago as 2011. The progress has not exactly been constant since then, struggling to step up for Napoli earlier this season following the exit of Gonzalo Higuain and an injury to Arkadiusz Milik. As club president Aurelio De Laurentiis put it, he looked like a player out of tune with the orchestra.
And yet, opportunities were limited. Examine Gabbiadini’s goalscoring record over the past three seasons with three different clubs and it is still impressive. His 26 league goals have come at a rate of one every 117 minutes. By way of comparison, that’s a better minutes-to-goal ratio than all 10 Premier League players who are into double figures so far this season.
Not so out of tune then. Either way, it’s the symphony at Southampton that matters now and Gabbiadini has always been more of a pragmatic sort of character anyway. Certainly, the early signs are that this mechanic has found his vocation. In fact, everything suggests Manolo Gabbiadini has the tools to trouble Manchester United at Wembley this Sunday.
How has Paul Pogba fared since second Man Utd debut against Southampton?
Paul Pogba faces Southampton once again on Sunday in the EFL Cup final, having made his second Manchester United debut against the Saints back in August. How has he fared since?
The pressure was on. After all the social media hype and with the Pogba branding emblazoned on as much club merchandise as possible, it was time for the returning hero to do his talking on the pitch.
Southampton at home represented a less than daunting start to life back in Manchester for Pogba, but the 23-year-old looked anything but the world’s most expensive footballer when he miscontrolled in the first minute, allowing Saints to break. Fortunately for the France international, it came to nothing.
Several wayward passes followed, but, after that nervous start, Pogba began to settle into his role and became central to United’s play in the 2-0 win. He had a colossal 107 touches in the game, 34 more than anyone else on the pitch.
Playing from deep, Pogba regained possession more times than any other player, while still finding the energy to burst forward. He finished the match having had four shots at goal - two more than any team-mate. United fans’ appetites had been whetted.
However, with Jose Mourinho sticking with a 4-2-3-1 system, Pogba became more subdued after his impressive second bow, as teams realised that pressuring him deep, not allowing him as much of the ball as he’d enjoyed against Southampton, could limit his influence.
Against Manchester City in September, Pogba was distinctly out of sorts, and often neglected his defensive duties, clearly frustrated at having to play in such a defensive role. Only Wayne Rooney gave the ball away more as the Frenchman looked overrun by United’s rampant neighbours in the 2-1 loss.
Pogba made no secret of where he wanted to play in an interview with Sky Sports’ Thierry Henry prior to the Manchester derby. “I would say midfielder on the left [is my best position],” Pogba said. "If you play a three I can play on the right of left, but I feel more comfortable to play on my left. "
Mourinho failed to take heed of the thinly-veiled suggestion from Pogba and even a first goal back in red against Leicester failed to galvanise the midfielder, as United went five league games without a win, denting any early hopes of a title tilt.
The 4-2-3-1 formation just wasn’t bearing fruit. The solution was to turn to the trusted Michael Carrick, who was more than happy to sit in front of the back four, allowing Pogba to venture further forward on his preferred left side.
Carrick has been a regular fixture in the United side since the EFL Cup win over rivals City, deployed with Ander Herrera and Pogba in the main, with the triumvirate complementing each other well.
Pogba’s effectiveness has increased markedly as a result. Arguably his best performance so far was at Crystal Palace in a 2-1 win. With Herrera tenaciously working away on one side, next to the calming influence of Carrick, Pogba scored one and laid on the winner for Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
In contrast to his second debut against Southampton, when Pogba popped up all over the pitch, he was able to play much higher up the field against Palace, and predominantly on his preferred left-hand side.
“He’s doing well, he’s doing more than well,” Mourinho told French TV station SFR in late December. “His evolution is clear. So I can imagine that next season for Paul will be top.”
The winner against Middlesbrough followed on New Year’s Eve and, statistically, Pogba has continued to look the part since then.
In the Premier League, only Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson has made more passes, while only team-mate Ibrahimovic has had more shots.
However, just three league goals from 3.4 shots per game is not the return fans demand.
Having hit the woodwork eight times in all competitions, you can put such profligacy down to bad luck, but some of those chances, like the header from point-blank range against St Etienne last Thursday, should have comfortably been put away.
Worryingly, of the players who have scored more than three league goals, Pogba ranks last in the shot conversion rate table, scoring just four goals from 81 efforts.
Pogba has to start finding the net more often sooner rather than later - and a player who is no stranger to the limelight would love nothing more than to do so at Wembley.
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