When Victor Wanyama stepped out at the Hawthorns to make his Southampton debut following his £12.5m transfer from Celtic (a record for a Scottish club), he became the first man from his country to play in the Premier League and also made Kenya the 100^th country to supply a Premiership player. When with Celtic he had also been the first Kenyan to play in the SPL and the first to score (a header) in the Champions League when Celtic beat Barcelona.

The son of a Kenyan international (Noah), Wanyama was capped by his country at the age of 15 (v Nigeria), shortly afterwards he followed his brother, to Sweden but when Mariga’s career took him to Italy, Victor went back home but then returned to European football in Belgium.

Arriving in Scotland, Wanyama, still only 20 years of age,was considered a centre-back but preferred the defensive midfielder role for which his formidable frame was well-suited.

Certainly his best games for Southampton came in that position and at the beginning he made himself indispensable, but with Pochettino leaving, many of the stand-out players from that 13-14 season believed the club was no longer ambitious enough.

Wanyama was one and he agitated for a move which did not endear him to the fans who made their displeasure known by altering the some of the words to his Wimoweh song from “the mighty Kenyan” to the “greedy Kenyan”.  Eventually, with just a year left on his contract, he was allowed to team up again with Pochettino for a fee of £11m. His time with Spurs started promisingly but a succession of knee injuries meant that by the time 2019-20 started he was deemed surplus to requirements, but a transfer to Club Brugge broke down at the last moment owing, it was said, to him upping his wage demands, however in March 2020 he moved to the MLS.