Back in the last knockings of the winter transfer window earlier this year, Southampton broke their transfer record to lure striker Guido Carrillo to St Mary’s.
The 27-year-old had been playing his football at Ligue 1 outfit Monaco since 2015, and in that time had bagged 21 goals in 95 games for the French side to suggest that he may well have been the man to drag the Saints away from the bottom three.
It was clear that the South Coast club were in dire need of striking reinforcements, and based on the below tweets from several Southampton fans on the day of his arrival, they thought that the Argentine was indeed the right man for their club…
Pretty excited about this one. He suits the way we play, he’ll be just like Pellé was for us. Can’t wait to see him in action. #saintsfc
— The Southampton Way (@SouthamptonWay) January 25, 2018
— (@Madmarky01) January 25, 2018
Hopefully a good Pelle replacement. Now a decent pacey winger to replace Mane and we’ll be where we should have been at the start of the season
— Sam Khan (@Khandot1Sam) January 25, 2018
Save us please
— Slong (@Saints24714222) January 25, 2018
OH YESSSSSS HES HERE TO SAVE US pic.twitter.com/d2Vpm19DBM
— Christian Candler (@thecandIer) January 25, 2018
Good signing but for our sake he needs to hit the ground running lol COYR
— Neil Taxi Baker (@NeilBak40227476) January 25, 2018
Yet, fast forward seven months, and Carrillo isn’t even playing his football at Southampton having been shipped out on loan to Leganes during the summer, which itself underlines just how testing a time the striker has had in English football.
Ultimately, there was a lot of expectation on the Argentine to deliver the goods for the Saints given they broke their transfer record for him, as he was seen as the answer to their obvious goal-scoring troubles – goal-scoring troubles that threw their Premier League status into jeopardy.
And the 27-year-old was pretty much thrown straight into the deep end by former boss Mauricio Pellegrino in a bid to get the goals needed to pull the Saints away from the relegation mire, but Carrillo ended the season with no goals for the club in ten appearances.
In fact, the arrival of Mark Hughes as manager saw the Argentine fell down the pecking order as he only managed seven minutes of Premier League football under the former Stoke chief – the writing was on the wall as early as a few weeks into Hughes’ reign.
And so it has proven, what with Hughes happy to let Carrillo leave the club for Leganes, and a reunion with Pellegrino, on loan for the remainder of the season – it appears that his Southampton career is over before it really begun.
And based on some of the tweets greeting the 27-year-old when he arrived back in January, some Saints fans may well be embarrassed given how badly the Argentine has flopped on the South Coast.
Southampton fans… what do you think? Let us know!
