“Can win the ball and has an eye for a pass, characteristics that have led to him being a long time target of Nigel Adkins,” said the club’s website in March 2011, when Dale Stephens signed on loan in time for the Saints’ final push for automatic promotion from League One.

The “gritty midfielder” featured six times in the successful run-in, without really truly catching the eye.

He went back to Oldham, but promptly signed for Charlton, where he made a substantial contribution to their going one better than Southampton by going up as League One champions in 2012. He then joined fellow Championship side Brighton in a move that had repercussions for the South Coast club as they were fined £90,000 for breaches of agent regulations but he became a formidable presence in their midfield as they reached the Premier League and then held on to their place among the elite.

In September 2020 Dale returned to the north-west to join Burnley and made his debut for them against Saints.