Harrison Reed’s Southampton career started at Oakwell in the 81st minute of a League Cup victory over Barnsley when he replaced Jay Rodriguez in the 81st minute. He had been at the club for a decade working his way through the academy and

with his ginger hair, his tenacious tackling and prodigious work-rate drew comparisons with Paul Scholes.

He had been in the U21 team that won the Premier League Cup Final in April 2015 although when the final whistle went he was sitting in the dugout because he had been sent off. That season he also made five Premier League starts but from then on, any other starts would only come in Cup competitions as he struggled to force his way into a Ronald Koeman’s and then Claude Puel’s plans on a consistent basis.

When Puel departed any hopes of being given a chance to impress the incoming Pellegrino were dashed when he was allowed to join Norwich on a season long loan. Then Mark Hughes and Ralph Hasenhuttl endorsed further season-long loan moves to Championship clubs which meant when he returned from Fulham at the end of the delayed 2019-20 season it had been more than three years since he had been seen in a Saints shirt. But in the meantime he had played a big part in Fulham’s rise to the Premier League and in August 2020 they took advantage of a clause in his loan deal that allowed them to sign him on a permanent footing for a fee of £8m.