When Marek Saganowski became Poland’s second youngest-ever international, at the age of 17, he looked set for an illustrious career in the game. But a motor-bike accident in 1998 left him unable to walk and his multiple injuries side-lined him for nearly two years.

He was now playing catch-up and, even though he went on to win 30-odd caps for his country, there would always be that thought that he was never as good as he might have been. Marek was appearing in his fifth European league when Southampton’s manager, George Burley, brought him to his sixth, rescuing him from a miserable spell at Troyes. Arriving on a six-month loan, the instinctive goal-poacher made an immediate impact – 10 goals in 11 starts, including a hat-trick away to Wolves – to propel the Saints into the Championship play-offs.

But signing a permanent contract perversely signalled the loss of his scoring touch. His 30 appearances, mostly from the bench, brought only three goals in 2007-08, no matter that the third of them came in the last-day win that kept the side in the Championship. Whereupon, he departed for Denmark on loan, where his appearances for Aalborg in the Champions League included games v Celtic and Manchester United.

After which, he returned to St Mary’s and promptly scored six times in six games. But after February of that relegation season, the goals dried up. Relegation to the third-tier and having to play in the minnows’ JPT knock-out left him seeking a higher standard of football. There were few offers and so, by now appearing to have no future under Alan Pardew, Marek went off to Greece’s Super League – a whimper of a departure that was hardly noticed. He hung up his boots in 2016 after three seasons with Legia Warszawa and started on the managerial trail which most recently saw him take the reigns of a II Liga Polish club in the autumn of 2022.