The young forward had arrived from Anderlecht four years prior, going straight into the Saints’ U18 squad, but his time at St Mary’s never saw him step onto the pitch for the first-team.

This, according to the player himself in an interview with DH in Belgium, is why he chose to leave Southampton this summer, opting for a return to a country he knows well.

He has since played eight times for Cercle Brugge, with just the one start, but it’s still far more than he got with the Saints, who had sent him on loan the past season, first to Ross County and then to Harrogate Town.

Asked about the decision to leave Southampton, Olaigbe said: “I needed to really test myself as a professional and prove to myself that I could do it. Southampton didn’t want to give me a chance in the first-team, so I wanted to leave.”

With that in mind, the outlet also asked him if he regretted swapping Anderlecht for the now Championship club back in 2019, but he assured them he made the right choice.

He added: “I will never have regrets, because each step allows you to grow and all the work accomplished will pay off one day or another. In England, I learned to develop physically, to be more aggressive, but also to behave very professionally: eat well, go to sleep early, etc…”

While out on loan in Scotland with Ross County, Olaigbe made 25 appearances, scored two goals and assisted another one, while his stint at Harrogate Town saw him find the back of the net three times and assist five goals in 19 games.

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He has continued that in the Championship following the team’s relegation to England’s second-tier, playing in 14 games so far this season in the league.

His regular playing time means the Southampton defender is also getting chances with Poland’s national team, and he was the designated player to face the media with his manager on Tuesday, where he was asked about life in a different league, relayed by O2.

Bednarek made it clear he has nothing to complain about these days at St Mary’s, even if adapting to the different football in the Championship does take some getting used to.

He said: “There is definitely a difference between the two leagues. The Championship is definitely more physical. Whenever I talk to someone, I say that when we stand in a circle before a match, I feel like we are playing rugby.

“The players are tall and physically strong. There are definitely differences in quality, but the league is strong and demanding. The number of games is also physically demanding.”

Bednarek has been at Southampton since 2017 after he signed for them from Lech Poznan in a €6m deal, and has since made 187 appearances in all competitions for them, scoring four goals and assisting one other.

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Brazilian outlet Trivela this week features a story about the striker’s future, claiming Bayern Munich just held a meeting with his entourage.

The outlet points out that the German side have big competition from English clubs, and that’s when Southampton end up getting a mention.

It’s claimed that the Saints tried to buy Marcos Leonardo in December last year, and Santos were actually interested in striking a deal with them.

The problem was Marcos Leonardo’s choice. Trivela claims that the player, his family and his entourage understood that Southampton would not be an ‘interesting project’ for his career, especially when you take into consideration where they were in the Premier League at that stage.

Other English clubs who reportedly made contact with his entourage so far have been Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Chelsea, West Ham and Newcastle United.

The word in Brazil has been that the player will be sold in the coming months, but with Southampton now in the Championship, it’s hard to imagine them in this battle, and their chance to do so has now passed.

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Those were the talks for the transfer of Paul Onuachu, who had advanced talks for the move and ended up joining Turkish side Trabzonspor on a loan deal instead.

Genk’s Head Of Football Dimitri De Condé was interviewed by Het Laatste Nieuws. Quoted by Voetbal Nieuws, explained what went wrong when they were trying to land the striker.

He claims that the clubs were negotiating a swap involving Onuachu and Joseph Paintsil, and that collapsed in the end.

“There were price agreements in connection with the Paintsil-Onuachu swap. As I said, Joseph’s heart was in Genk,” Dimitri De Condé told Het Laatste Nieuws.

“I was certainly not going to force him to leave. So be it, we were willing to put the knocked-off amount on the table for Paul. It would be the most expensive incoming transfer in Genk’s history. “

He then revealed that Southampton also wanted another move involved in the deal, which was Aziz Ouattara’s move to Valenciennes, who had the same owners as the Saints.

“Everything seemed fine, but in 24 hours everything changed. It suddenly became times two and Aziz having to leave for France. Then we said: no way.”

That indeed sounds like a complicated situation, and it’s not hard to understand why it all collapsed in the end.

Onuachu is staying at Trabzonspor until the end of the season, and continues to have a contract with Southampton until 2026.

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The attacking midfielder has impressed this season, scoring seven goals and registering one assist from 11 games. On Sunday, he starred by netting the winner in his side’s 2-1 victory over FC Nordsjælland.

Vallys’ performances have caught the attention of several clubs, including Manchester United, Aston Villa and Southampton.

It’s claimed the Premier League duo, the Saints, VfL Wolfsburg, Real Betis, Marseille and PSV Eindhoven all had officials in attendance yesterday to watch the 27-year-old live in action against Nordsjælland.

Among these clubs, the report states PSV had sent their chief scout to take a closer look at the Denmark international and others.

When describing his latest performance, Ekstra Bladet say Vallys showcased his qualities to the scouts who were in attendance and he’s the ‘epitome of football intelligence at a high level.’

The Dane’s deal lasts until 2026 and Brøndby manager Jesper Sørensen has admitted that he’s not surprised other clubs have set their sights on him.

“I don’t go about my day worrying about whether we can keep Vallys. But if there is someone else who thinks Vallys is more talented than us, then I can really understand that,” he said.

Despite the likes of Manchester United, Aston Villa and Southampton watching Vallys, the newspaper questions if many big clubs would ‘put large sums of millions’ on the table for a player who turned 27 years of age in September.

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That’s according to Voetbal International, who carry quotes from PSV boss Peter Bosz today on the defender, who is set to miss this weekend’s clash with Ajax.

The newspaper explains that Bella-Kotchap, who arrived in a last minute, deadline day move from Southampton in the summer after a potential loan to Germany fell through, ‘is not available’ for PSV for the time being.

They explain that the central defender is ‘struggling’ with a shoulder injury, the fourth time in his career he’s had such a problem.

The German defender has reportedly been struggling with a shoulder injury for a week, which means he already missed games against Fortuna Sittard and Lens.

“He’s not here for the time being. But it’s not up to me to say whether he needs surgery. I think the club will make a statement about this early next week,” Bosz said at a press conference when asked about the player.

VI explain the shoulder injury is a long-standing one for the centre-back, who missed seven games at VfL Bochum and spent two separate spells on the sidelines at Southampton with the same injury.

He was also on the sidelines for ten games with a knee injury last season and it now remains to be seen how many PSV matches he will have to miss with this problem.

That’s something the Dutch club will presumably announce next week when it’s been decided whether he needs surgery.

Either way, it appears his loan spell is set for an abrupt halt, with an old injury flaring up and causing problems at his new club.

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That’s according to Fussball Transfers, who carry quotes from Leverkusen director Simon Rolfes on the player’s struggles.

Tella joined Leverkusen in a €23.3m deal from Southampton in the summer as the German side paid big to continue improving Xabi Alonso’s squad.

He was brought in as a replacement for Moussa Diaby, who had left for Aston Villa earlier in the summer and left a big hole that needed to be filled.

He’s yet to fill the boots left behind by the Frenchman, though, with no goals in the Bundesliga so far and just one goal in two games in the Europa League.

Indeed, he’s barely featured in the Bundesliga to date, participating in just 7% of the available minutes in the league, not the kind of numbers expected given the money paid to sign him from Southampton.

Fussball Transfers, though, insist the club are ‘not panicking’ just yet despite a ‘slow start’ for the winger.

They say the former Southampton man has suffered from a clear ‘disadvantage’ in that his preference to dribble with the ball goes against the possession style of play adopted by Alonso.

The belief is that Tella needs time to adjust and work out how he fits in, something Rolfes has echoed.

“All players who came to us later have this problem,” he said. “So far we have been very dominant, but we will still need these facets this season.”

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That’s according to his agent, Sylvester Agyei, who has revealed Southampton’s efforts to keep the player this summer fell by the wayside.

Olaigbe departed the Saints on a free transfer this summer, electing to return to Belgium with Brugge at the end of August after four years with the Saints.

He had initially joined them from Anderlecht’s youth system in 2019 and moved his way up from there, ending up in the B team before loan spells at Ross County and Harrogate Town.

He failed to make a single appearance for the first team, though, and so decided to return to his homeland in search of more minutes and development this summer.

He’s been slowly integrated into Cercle Brugge’s first team this season, with just four appearances to his name so far and 15% of the available minutes to his name but that’s been enough to see him feature for Belgium’s U21’s.

He made his debut with them in September and hasn’t looked back since, bagging goals in each of his three games so far and earning plenty of praise.

It seems his decision to leave Southampton has paid off and they may be regretting not trying harder to keep him, having made an offer that was ultimately rejected.

“He really gained maturity there and grew physically,” Agyei said regarding his client’s time in England.

“Southampton wanted to extend, but Kazeem wanted to prove himself in Belgium. (Now) we are just bringing him in slowly. People haven’t seen the last of him yet, I can assure you of that.”

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That’s according to journalist Peter Linden, who says the manager continues to enjoy a break ‘that has not ended’ for now.

Hasenhüttl parted ways with Southampton in December 2022 after four years in the job after his appointment in December 2018 following his departure from RB Leipzig earlier that year.

He had left a good impression in the Premier League, despite Southampton’s troubles in the latter stages of his reign but is yet to return to work despite links to jobs in England and the Bundesliga.

It’s been reported on several occasions that he is in no rush to make a return and Linden says that remains the case.

He states that Hasenhüttl has received ‘many enquiries’ since his departure from Southampton but didn’t have an ‘easy ear’ for anyone, instead preferring to enjoy his time in his house in Seefeld, near Innsbruck.

None of the jobs offered have ‘appealed to him’ and he’s more than happy to see out his Southampton contract, which runs until 2024.

Indeed, the most attention he has been garnering is as a guest of Katharina Liebherr, former Saints owner and now minority shareholder at the club, at her wedding in the Nobel Hotel Dolder in Zurich.

It seems he is in no rush to return to work and is instead waiting to see what happens in the coming months while he continues to cash his Saints pay cheque.

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The multimillionaire has been speaking to Blick about the family’s ownership of Southampton, which lasted for 13 years before she eventually sold the majority of her shares and saw them further diluted by the new ownership.

The Liebherr family initially bought Southampton in 2009, with Katharina’s father Markus paid an undisclosed figure to take charge at St Mary’s.

Sadly, his reign would last just a year as he died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2010 at the age of 62, a circumstance that nobody saw coming.

That saw Katharina handed the shares and control of the club and she would spend the next seven years in charge before selling an 80% stake to Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng.

Her remaining 20% stake in the club was diluted further down by the arrival Sport Republik, who bought the controlling stake in the club from Jisheng but not Liebherr’s 20%.

Their injection of cash into Southampton meant her shares diluted downwards, and while she remains committed to the club, she is no longer in control, not that it has changed her plans for them moving forwards.

“It was a shock when my father bought Southampton FC!” she said on the initial takeover.

“As a family, we had no experience in this industry. He bought the club in 2009 and died in 2010. I have never seen him as happy as he was that year. Even though he wasn’t allowed to witness any of our ascents, he still fulfilled his lifelong dream.

“You need a lot of capital. Especially in the Premier League,” she added regarding her decision to sell up.

“The heights aren’t really a problem. With Ronald Koeman as coach and Ralph Krueger as chairman, we reached 6th place, and things went very well during the time that I was the sole owner.

“But it is important to prepare for worse times. We were looking for partners for this. My concern was always to find someone to whom I could pass the club into good hands.

“I always wanted to stay there, but above all because I have a strong emotional bond with the employees and can build a bridge to a new owner. Mr. Gao had similar values ​​to my father. That would actually have been a good solution.

“Unfortunately, we were relegated in the summer, and that didn’t have a positive impact on the club’s value. We want to get promoted again and then I am convinced that the club’s value will recover again.”

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