Saints fans should give Jack Cork a rousing reception when he returns to St mary's for the first time with Swansea City, then we should show him what he is missing.

Jack Cork was a good servant to Southampton Football Club, in his two spells here he put in performances that were almost always consistent and almost always underrated by the manager he was playing under in he Premier League.

It was certainly no surprise that he left in January with only six month's left on his contract with the benefit of hindsight perhaps he might have signed a new one, certainly he was a vital cog n the midfield, but with Ronald Koeman preferring a partnership of Wanyama and Schneiderlin he found it hard to get in the side at times.

But at the start of last season he played a big part in the side with Koeman preferring to use him instead of Wanyama is many games, the pairing of Schneiderlin and wanyama was often unnecessary in games against the likes of Sunderland etc and ork's ability to move the ball on quickly meant that we were able to utilise the pace of Mane and the overlapping Clyne and Bertrand to catch teams on the back foot and break quickly.

After Cork was injured in December and subsequently transferred to Swansea we lost that ability and struggled to create and score with the fluidity of the early part of the season, es injuries to key players played a part in that, but Cork was a big loss in this respect.

In his first spell here Jack played 22(1) League games plus 2 in the cup, followed by 94(21) league games and 11(2) in the cups, ironically he did not score a goal until the final months of his stay, when he suddenly hit a purple patch scoring three times in six games as Saints won all of them culminating in the 8-0 thrashing of Sunderland.

So good luck to Jack Cork at Swansea and in his future career wherever that may be, although obviously not against Saints, it would be good to see Saints fans acknowledge the part he has played in his time at St Mary's helping us out of the Championship, establishing us in the Premiership and taking us up a notch to be a top ten side.

Saints fans should give him a rousing reception before and after the game, but during it show him wht he is missing.

Photo: Action Images

SaintPaulVW added 11:47 - Sep 25 For me he is the one that got away. Shame. I can understand his reasons but I hope tomorrow we remind him why he should have stayed.
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bstokesaint added 12:40 - Sep 25 I think it goes without saying he'll get a top reception. I'm very pleased for him that he got to go a club like Swansea, because although they're not one of the "bigger" clubs paying the mega bucks wages that some of our other players have gone to, he's gone to a club that are more interested in playing football and doing things the right way. He was brilliant for us and a huge part in our success from the lower leagues. I wish him all the best for every game except against us.

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IWOZTHERE added 13:51 - Sep 25 O.K he wanted to go cos he wasn't first choice but it seemed obvious at the time to me and others that he would be a big loss. Was it £3.5m? ... A joke for a top, proven and reliable Premier player even if he went for nothing in the summer.Once it was certain MS was off he might even have signed a new contract and (yes with hindsight now), made a difference to the start to this season. Perhaps Ron just didn't rate him but he's one of the few that don't. He's doing well for Swansea and they're no slouches.

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stmichael added 14:56 - Sep 25 Would love him sat in front of our back 4 now. We had to pay Chelsea 5 million for a player who IMO is not as good as Cork and was already on our books. Not our finest work tbh.
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IWOZTHERE added 00:09 - Sep 26 Politeness over. Bad judgement at the time and as things have panned out it's proved to have been a major mistake. Someone gets paid a lot of money to make recommendations in these cases. Did Ron just not rate him or was it Les again?
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