10 Southampton Foreign Import Strikers Who Were Major Flops

9. Inigo Idiakez

Cost: £275,000 Games: 35 Goals: 2

Inigo Idiakez, equally often used as a midfielder or second striker, had been a member of the 1996 Spain Olympic team alongside the likes of Raul, Fernando Morientes and Gaizka Mendieta, before establishing himself as a regular for his hometown club Real Sociedad, eventually being made club captain. At the age of 30, Idiakez had moved to England to play for promotion chasing Championship club Derby. At Derby he had shone as one of their key players, winning the club's Player of the Season award and regularly contributing vital goals. When Idiakez's former Derby boss George Burley brought the Basque forward to Southampton in the summer of 2006, it looked like Saints had secured the services of one of the Championship's top performers, just the kind of player to propel the team back into the top flight as quickly as possible. Idiakez, however, struggled with form and fitness, rarely impressing on the occasions in which he actually managed to make it onto the pitch. He even had a brief loan spell away at QPR during his first Saints season in order to get a bit of a run of form up, but it was to no avail. He was released in June 2008 having scored just twice for Southampton. After leaving Saints Idiakez failed to find another club. For all that he may be well regarded elsewhere, for Southampton all that he is likely to be remembered for is missing the crucial penalty in the play-off shoot-out against former club Derby. It would be another five years before Saints had another shot at promotion to the Premiership.