When Guly Do Prado’s Brazilian club participated in a U-21 tournament in Italy, he impressed the locals enough to be offered terms by Catania. A year later, he moved up a division to Serie “A” Perugia. Unfortunately for Guly, his Italian adventure then went awry. First, Perugia went bankrupt. Then, at his next club, Fiorentina, a bad knee-injury required surgery and he went out on loan to rebuild his career.

When Southampton came calling, he had just played a significant part in helping Cesena reach Serie “A”, but a new coach had arrived, who wanted him to play wide-right, as opposed to his preference for playing through the middle as an attacking forward. He was now 28, so his next move would be important. His agent told him that Roma, Lazio, and Chievo were interested, but having played for seven Italian clubs, Guly elected to give it a go in England, never mind that Southampton was in League One and he spoke no English.

The timing of his arrival and Alan Pardew’s removal less than a week later – after a 4-0 away win at Bristol Rovers, in which Guly came on as sub – inevitably excited the conspiracy theorists within the fan-base, who deduced, probably correctly that Guly must have been acquired over the manager’s head and, even though the original offer was a three-month loan deal, it followed that this must have been the final straw for Pardew’s relationship with his chairman.

Whoever was responsible for authorising Guly’s arrival had made a reasonable call.

After impressing enough to get a full-time contract, over the next two seasons – during which successive promotions were gained – Guly chipped in with nine and 10 League goals, respectively. His touch sometimes looked heavy for a Brazilian and he could appear to drift. Yet he could be, on his day, a hard-running foil to Rickie Lambert. Nigel Adkins certainly liked the positive aspects of the player he had inherited: not only had Guly been “a vital part” of those two promotions, but he had merited an extension of his contract until the summer of 2014. With the arrival of Jay Rodriguez and Gastón Ramirez, however, Guly’s chances of a starting place in the Saints’ Premiership side were inevitably limited. When his contract expired he went first to the States and then after a quick trial at the seaside ended back in his homelands.