Steve Williams was a “talented” footballer who, according to Kevin Keegan in his 1997 autobiography, “could have caused an argument in an abbey.” To put it in a nutshell, “Stevie was a hothead,” Keegan reckoned, “but he could play.”

And how! Steve made his debut for Lawrie McMenemy, as a 17 year-old who had yet to sign pro, replacing Jim McCalliog, who was one of the banished curfew-breakers when a Second Division visit to Portsmouth closely followed the FA Cup semi-final win in 1976. By the middle of the next season, Steve had done enough for McMenemy to release McCalliog and to pair him with a recently signed Alan Ball.

Similar in temperament, they made an exciting pair, Bally’s short-passing game being complemented by Steve’s elegant surges deep into the opponents’ half. Seen as McMenemy’s protégé, Steve was known as “Lawrie’s Boy” in the dressing room but, as he developed under Ball’s tutelage, he might well have been dubbed “Bally’s Boy”. He certainly learned fast, finishing his first season – 1976-77 – with the first of his 14 U-21 caps and as the fans’ choice for the Player-of-the-Year trophy.

He would be almost ever-present as Southampton won promotion in 1978 and reached the League Cup Final in 1979. Yet it would be 1983 before he won the first of his six full caps. Succeeding Ball as captain, he then led the side in the Saints’ most successful season to date – 1983-84 –when they finished First Division runners-up and reached the FA Cup semi-final. The question as to whether he was fit to play in that semi-final continues – as discussed in Ivan Golac’s profile – to be a matter of contention, although talking in 2018 Steve still felt playing with pain-killing injections was the right call.

It all came apart in 1984-85, however, when Steve departed for Arsenal in mid-season – the fee of £550,000 being a record for the Saints – and his manager for Sunderland at the end of it. Over the next three-and-a-half seasons, Steve had some good, bad and indifferent games for Arsenal – the team he’d supported as an Essex boy – yet never added to his England caps and collected only one medal, when Arsenal beat Liverpool in the 1987 League Cup Final. There can be no gainsaying that he played his best football in Southampton’s red-and-white stripes. He nearly came back to The Dell on a free, he had a trial, played a few friendlies, but realised he and Branfoot’s philosophies were not on the same wavelength. Instead Branfoot bought Terry Hurlock and Steve went to third-tier Exeter, doubling as assistant to Ball. After which, he remained in Devon, initially in a successful magazine-publishing business and then in property development.