When Charly Alcaraz arrived at St Mary’s direct from Argentinian football the Saints match programme described him as “talented and fiery, cambative and feisty” and, as the fans soon found out, they were not wrong. He was the second signing in the January transfer window of 2023 as the club, then managed by Nathan Jones, fought to maintain their Premier League status. That wasn’t the best environment to blood a youngster with no previous experience of European football but the nineteen-year-old was not the sort to be phased. In his last game for Racing in the ‘Trofeo de Campeones’ (the equivalent of our Community Shield) he had scored the winner against Boca Juniors, two minutes before the end of extra-time and, taking his shirt off while celebrating in front of the Boca fans, earned him a red card. A melee followed and six others were sent off which meant in total ten players received their marching orders during the game.

That incident summed up Charly, but the fans quickly took to him as he loved to run forward with the ball and he had bags of confidence. Unfortunately the club were relegated and when Russell Martin arrived it quickly became obvious that Alcaraz’s lapses in discipline and free spirit was not in keeping with the new manager’s vision. In the January of 2024 he was allowed to join Juventus on loan, a road not previously travelled by any previous Saints player. His sojourn in Italy turned out to be a mixed bag with some good and bad performances, but he did not do enough in his ten appearances to warrant the Italian giants making the move permanent. With Saints now back in the top flight there were many who thought Alcaraz would be an asset but Martin was not one of them and he was allowed to move back to South America, a few days before the summer window shut, for a fee of around £16m which meant Saints made a small profit on their initial outlay.