Southampton wasted £26m on Reed signing who earned more than Armstrong

Southampton fans will be hoping their team can turn a corner in the Premier League after the international break, aware that relegation is a dead certainty if they continue at their current trajectory.

Russell Martin’s men are rock bottom of the division, having lost nine of their 11 top-flight games to date, with a number of key performers from their Championship promotion heroics consistently letting them down.

One of those faces is Adam Armstrong, who has receded into his shell in the elite division, after cementing himself as a potent striker last season in the second tier.

Armstrong’s form this season

It must feel like a very long time ago for Saints fans when Armstrong was firing in goal after goal for the South Coast outfit on the way to Premier League football being reached, with the ex-Blackburn Rovers man struggling with the step-up alongside the rest of his teammates.

The 27-year-old helped himself to a stunning goal return of 24 strikes from 49 Championship clashes, including scoring the winner in a tense playoff final that saw Martin’s men just about overcome Leeds United 1-0.

Armstrong unfortunately hasn’t been this cool in front of goal in the league above, only registering a single strike from eight Premier League games, as Southampton worry that an immediate return to the Championship is on the cards.

Conversations could soon be had over the misfiring striker’s wage, therefore, with Capology stating that Armstrong is on a hefty £60k-per-week pay packet, making him the club’s fifth-highest earner despite a concerning slump in performances.

Yet, at least the 27-year-old has managed to shine for the South Coast side across his stay at St. Mary’s so far, with one expensive forward of top-flight days gone by just going down as a major waste of time.

Sofiane Boufal’s torrid time at Southampton

Sofiane Boufal arrived at Southampton in 2016 with lots of fanfare attached to his name, having just set Ligue 1 alight with former employers Lille before making the leap to England.

Boufal would bow out from the French club with 11 goals and four assists next to his name in league action during the 2015/16 season, with Southampton then expecting the world of their Moroccan recruit in his new surroundings, splashing out a bumper £16m to get the deal over the line during the Les Reed era.

Boufal’s numbers at Southampton
Stat	Boufal
Games played	85
Goals scored	5
Assists	5
Games missed via injury	30
Transfer cost	£16m
Wage cost per week	£65k-per-week
Wage costs overall	£9.9m
Sourced by Transfermarkt/Capology

Rather than Boufal going on to be a rip-roaring success on the South Coast, he would go down as a massive flop, with only five goals and five assists coming his way when donning a Saints strip.

Missing 30 games in total across the three underwhelming seasons he was at the club owing to injury setbacks, Southampton were very much made to rue forking out £16m to win the left winger’s services, with Total Saints Podcast contributor Lucy Highnett even blasting him as a “liability” back in 2020.

He would score a sublime solo goal as a reminder of why Southampton did break the bank for his signature, but these moments of magic were far too rare, with Boufal costing the Saints around a whopping £26m overall when looking at his transfer cost, on top of his excessive wage across the three seasons he was at the club.

Martin will just hope Armstrong and other notable underperformers in his ranks in the here and now turn around their form soon, with relegation soon becoming a worrying reality if things don’t drastically improve.