Having been obliged to accept a resistant David Speedie as a make-weight in the sale of Alan Shearer to Blackburn, Ian Branfoot then chanced £575,000 of the Shearer legacy on an equally reluctant Kerry Dixon. It was “a bloody tough decision” for Kerry to quit Stamford Bridge at the age of 31, after nine successful seasons. Interviewed as one of Chelsea’s Cult Heroes, he explained to Leo Moynihan that leaving when he was nine goals short of Bobby Tambling’s club-record haul of 202 goals, in all competitions, “was the greatest regret of my life.”

No matter that Dixon and Speedie had famously fought in the dressing-room at Chelsea, they had been a lethal on-field duo.

But if any Saints fans – never mind the manager – were hoping that the reunion of these two “Pensioners” would deliver in the manner of Lawrie McMenemy’s conveyor-belt of golden oldies, they were about to be seriously disillusioned. Speedie was soon gone, without finding the net for Saints. Dixon would play less often but hang around longer – long enough to score his 200th League goal in his final Southampton appearance, at Elland Road in January 1993.

Well-placed to score himself, Matt Le Tissier chose to present Kerry with a simple tap-in for his milestone-goal – a notable sacrifice in so far as Matt had surrendered a chance to score against Leeds United, the only established Premiership side he failed to score against.

There was no doubting Dixon’s pedigree as a goalscorer. To his critics who expected more of him – not least a better first-touch, he famously retorted that “my last isn’t bad”. The proof of that pudding is in his statistics: he had top-scored for Reading in Division III in 1983 and then for Chelsea, in the next two seasons in Divisions II and I. But even if he had been psychologically ready to lead Southampton, it is surely fair to say that he was well past his peak and lacking the requirements of Premiership football. It suited all parties when he moved, initially on loan, to play second-tier football for his home-town Luton. The highlight for him was an FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Wembley. The Hatters lost 2-0 but Dixon received a post-match ovation from the Chelsea fans. “It was the greatest moment of my football career,” he told Moynihan: “up there with scoring for England on my full debut.” He would go on to win eight caps, scoring four times in the process.

All in all, Kerry’s half-a-season at Southampton was a best-forgotten blip for a late-developer

– rejected by Luton and Spurs but then rescued by Reading from non-league Dunstable – who had made most remarkably good. After a brief spell in management with Doncaster Rovers, he managed a succession of non-league clubs in the Home Counties. Comfortable in front of a microphone or TV camera, Kerry remained much in demand for media work until he was sent to prison for nine months, in June 2015, for assault. When he came out the punditry work had dried up so he worked as a heating engineer’s assistant – pipe fitting, boiler work and “various other bits and bobs, however you describe it, I am an assistant,” he explained in a 2016 BBC interview in which he also revealed he had a gambling addiction.