When Michael Svensson injured himself, warming up at Fratton Park in March 2004, his partnership with Claus Lundekvam was effectively over and Southampton needed a replacement. Andreas Jakobsson was the 31 year-old defender signed to fill that gap. He certainly had the pedigree, with League and Cup medals won in Sweden and/or Denmark, plus 36 caps for Sweden, including being ever-present during the Finals of both the 2002 World Cup and the 2004 European Championship.  If his 27 Premiership appearances – out of a possible 34 – for the Saints are not especially memorable, that is not perhaps surprising. When he made his debut in their fifth game of 2004-05, Southampton were already under their second manager of the season: Steve Wigley.

And when Wigley’s successor, Harry Redknapp, arrived in December, he promptly borrowed a young centre-back from Spurs: Calum Davenport. So it perhaps says something for Andreas that he featured as often as he did. Redknapp could not save the Saints from relegation, however, and Andreas duly returned to Sweden, to win the Cup again with Helsinborgs, before dropping down to Sweden’s seventh tier.