10 Southampton Foreign Import Strikers Who Were Major Flops

Talked up as the future of Saints goal getters and instead proved costly mistakes.

By Jack Kingston /

Southampton's difficult summer has seen the loss of not just their highly rated manager, but a raft of key players including centre forward Rickie Lambert. Fortunately the appointment of former Ajax and Barcelona centre back Ronald Koeman as the new boss has instilled some sense of cautious optimism amongst Saints fans. The Dutch manager's knowledge of the top players in his home league has helped Saints capture some useful new talent. Italian forward Graziano Pelle arrived for a fee of around £9 million in July with an impressive goalscoring rate for Koeman's former club Feyernoord - 50 goals in 57 Eredivisie games. For many, it looks like Pelle could be the answer to Saints' goalscoring needs in the absence of Lambert. Others, however, have sounded a note of caution in pointing out how high scoring players in the Dutch league are not always high scorers in England and that Pelle's goal rate was never nearly as impressive back when he played in Serie A. Any Saints fan with a reasonable memory will have looked at Pelle's transfer and thought worriedly back to a succession of foreign import "star" strikers who were talked up as the future of Saints goal getters and instead proved costly mistakes. These ten are just the worst examples.