IF ONLY..

Last night, Gareth Bale was named Player of the Year by the Professional Footballers Association.   Here he is pictured receiving the award from PFA Chairman Gordon Taylor.   Now there`s no doubt that Gareth has been one of the outstanding players of the season, especially for his exploits for Tottenham in the Champions League so congratulations and good luck to him.

But I watched him playing against Real Madrid last week and, as the tv cameras dwelt on him, a certain wistfulness could be detected in his face.   I knew instinctively what he was thinking as he and his Spurs team mates battled it out with Jose Morinho`s Spanish outfit.   He was thinking to himself, "If only I had stayed at Southampton where I had been happy for so many years in their Academy, I could have been lining up for the Saints when they play Bristol Rovers on Saturday."

I`m sure similar thoughts cross the minds of other former Saints players as they ply their trade in the higher echelons of the game - Peter Crouch at Tottenham along with Gareth, Arsenal`s Theo Walcott, Stoke City`s Kenwyne Jones, Rory Delap, Danny Higginbotham and Ricardo Fuller, Bolton`s talisman Kevin Davies, the Newcastle contingent of Leon Best, Mike Williamson and Nile Ranger, another three at Blackpool in James Beattie, Brett Ormerod and Stephen Crainey, Wayne Bridge now at West Ham, Chris Baird at Fulham, Kevin Phillips at Birmingham,  Andrew Surman at Norwich....the list goes on.   It makes for a litany of talent that has left St. Mary`s mainly to keep the finances on a level footing.

But the Saints go marching on.   Hanging on to second place behind Brighton in League One, five games to go, bums beginning to squeak a little louder and last night`s PFA awards also included no less than five Saints players in this season`s Team of the Year for League One - Kelvin Davis, Dan Harding, Jose Fonte, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.   But I still look at all those who have left and, like Gareth Bale, often think to myself, "If only."