Southampton: 5 Youth Products That Went On To Big Things Before Gareth Bale
£85 million transfer fee. It's a long way to come for the young school caretaker's son who was almost not accepted into the Southampton Academy because he was too short. Fortunately for Bale, Saints take pride in their youth development and scouting abilities and the Welsh winger is just one of a long line of young players to emerge from the South Coast club. After all, Bale hitting form for Real coincides with fellow Saints Academy graduate Adam Lallana captaining a Southampton side containing talented youth team players Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse to an impressive start to the season and earning himself an England call-up. Since long before there was an official "Academy", Southampton have been producing talented young players. While some, like Lallana or Saints icon Matt Le Tissier, have stayed with the club, many more, like Bale, have gone onto even better things since leaving the South Coast. Here are just five examples of Southampton youth products who enjoyed great success elsewhere. The only criteria to appear on this list is that Southampton have to be the professional club that gave them their first start as a youngster and that the players have to have achieved their greatest successes after leaving.