Alex Östlund was still only 16 when he made his debut for AIK, his first professional club, to become the youngest debutant in the Swedish First Division. He was then a striker but, by the time he joined Southampton, aged 27, as a £500,000-signing from Feyenoord, he was an international full-back.

And a marauding, tough-tackling one, at that – a style guaranteed to make him a favourite of the supporters who, with a nod to his flowing dark locks and beard, christened him “Jesus”.

The nickname bemused Alex a little, but it had been a while since the fans had had a cult-hero – especially a right-back in the swashbuckling style of Ivan Golac. His Southampton appearances petered out in 2007-08, however, and he was released, as a free agent, at the end of that season. He played only half-a-dozen games for Esbjerg in Denmark, before he retired in January 2010, a bad knee having refused to mend.