Sam Gallagher is struggling to find his form at at Blackburn last season after falling out of favour after the sacking of Harry Redknapp.

Saints fans have been wondering whether Sam Gallagher might be the solution to the goalscoring problems at St Mary's in the past few weeks, but it seems that the 22 year old striker is not enjoying the best of times on loan at Birmingham City.

Gallagher went on loan to St Andrews to a big fanfare in Birmingham and it was hailed as a piece of good work by the Blues to snatch him ahead of other Championship clubs including local rivals Wolves.

But it is fair to say that it has not worked out for Gallagher yet in the Midlands and he has failed to replicate his form of last season at Blackburn where he notched 11 goals in 35 starts plus another 11 appearances as sub.

So far this season he has started only 5 games plus another 3 fleeting sub appearances out of the Championship games he could have featured in and since the arrival of new manager Steve Cotterill 4 weeks ago to replace Harry Redknapp, he has only played 1 minute of football as a last minute sub a couple of weeks back.

His only goal came in a 6-1 thrashing at Hull and that was in the last minute of the game, that was another sub appearance and he has not started a game since 23rd September the first game after Redknapp was sacked.

Indeed since Redknapps sacking he has only had 37 minutes game time and was an unused sub in their last game a 1-0 defeat at Millwall.

The Birmingham web sites are now questioning his signing and have not been impressed by his performances and to compound that he is seen as very much another Harry Redknapp folly and will find it hard to distance himself from that.

Steve Cotterill does not seem to rate Gallagher and given he was Redknapp's coach he would know the player quite well by now.

The worry is that this loan spell will replicate the one Gallagher had at MK Don's two years ago when he failed to score in the opening six weeks of the season and then found himself frozen out sitting on the bench but rarely called upon, not getting even a minute on the pitch for around 10 weeks before being given a late run of late sub appearances in the December of the year with Saints deciding to recall him in January due to his lack of game time.

Saints seem to like Gallagher signing him to a new 4 year contract only 3 months ago before sending him out on loan, but the worry now is that he is not progressing at Birmingham and at 22 he really needs to be kicking on a bit, last season at Blackburn looked encouraging and certainly showed he had what it takes at Championship level, but unless he can force his way into Cotterill's thinking this could be another wasted season.

Gallagher seemed to be on the verge of an early breakthrough in season 2013/14 when at 18 he made his debut in a 2-1 Capital One Cup defeat at Sunderland and went on that season to start 3 Premier League games plus another 15 as sub, scoring in a 4-2 win against Norwich plus a goal against Yeovil in the FA Cup.

However he has not played for Saints since that season although he spent virtually all of the following season out injured that hampering his progress.

He is now at an age when he really needs to be proving himself at the leverl he wants to play at, that is of course the Premier League, but he does need to get a track record in the Championship on loan if he is to force his way into Mauricio Pellegrino's thinking and have a future at St Mary's.

Saints supporters hope that eventually becomes the case.

Photo: Action Images

larry12 added 12:09 - Oct 26 Well done Les Reed. Gallagher, Targett, Harry Reed, Mr Plod, That other left back, etc, et,c all given long term contracts to secure a bight future for Saints. Shame they are ALL not good enough, still, in Les Reed we trust. New manager July 18? Probably. Freddie, sack that pointless ruination of an employee and now Wilson !!! Oh, you aren't interested and don't know anything about about football. Fair enough, carry on regardless. Hope we don't get relegated.

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beynali73 added 12:18 - Oct 26 I think it's pretty clear that Gallagher isn't premier class. His outstanding goal in the U23 cup final was awesome but like most Saints fans I was surprised that he was offered another deal. We all want to see players through the ranks but only if they are better than what we already have.
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SaintNick added 12:34 - Oct 26 Offering him another deal was probably more about protecting our investment whilst hedging our bets that he might make it, rumour is that Birmingham are paying his wages plus a fee for the season, so we are not actually out of pocket and might yet still pick up a nice fee for him
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underweststand added 14:05 - Oct 26 whereas (finacially) it's a good deal for Saints, Sam G. has shown that he can perform (as he did at Blackburn) but he needs the game time that Cotteriill is denying him. We only need to look at our own Prem.strikers to know that they are amongst the most unreliable types - unless they have a team plan to give them service. Managers who stick to one formation " to the death" leave the Sam's of this world on the bench every week. Given that Sam performed well for "unlucky " Blackburn, he should be given the chance to play more for Brum..who are in the same spot as Rovers were last season. Still its their club, and maybe they will look back as see that perhaps 'arry wasn't such a bad bet anyway.

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SaintPaulVW added 20:06 - Oct 26 No point him being at Birmingham if they are not playing him. I may be mistaken but I thought usually there was some minimum level of required playing time in loan deals?
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Big_T added 02:23 - Oct 27 Just a note to larry12 Norwich fans are more than happy with Harrison Reed. He is top of their pass completion and is helping them with their nine games unbeaten. He was also excellent against Arsenal on Tuesday night where Norwich out played the gunners (and out passed) and were unlucky to lose.
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SaintBrock added 15:08 - Oct 27 Perhaps because he isn't very good? No bids at all so Les must be getting worried.
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