A connection forged at Blackburn?

When Blackburn Rovers were promoted to the Championship in 2018, they splashed £7m on raw Nottingham Forest youngster Ben Brereton.

He would partner another permanent signing that summer, Adam Armstrong, who had scored nine goals in 21 games on loan in League One the previous year.

Armstrong took a season to adapt and then exploded, earning his big move to St Mary’s by scoring buckets of goals as Brereton looked on.

His new strike partner however struggled to adapt to the physicality of first-team football. Big but cumbersome, direct but wayward, Brereton spent two seasons in Armstrong’s shadow, flitting in and out of the side.

When he finally locked down a place, it was with a firm remit to stick on the left, stretch defences on the counter and cut the ball back for Armstrong to finish – a job he managed with some success but rarely with any goal threat of his own.

It wasn’t until Armstrong left in the summer Brereton took on Chilean nationality and his mother’s surname Diaz, that the former England schoolboy found his feet.

Twenty two goals were plundered in 2021-22 as Brereton Diaz, now firmly a fan favourite, bullied Championship defences and started the season like a bullet.

However, he tired after Christmas that season scoring just twice in 14 games. It was a similar pattern the next season as, amid speculation about his future, he got off to a hot start before slumping to three goals in 22 games.

When confident, Brereton Diaz can be unstoppable – when off form, he’s a toiling left winger that rarely threatens.

Perhaps that’s why his breakthrough move to Villarreal failed miserably last season. Yet six goals on loan at a doomed Sheffield United at least hinted at an ability to thrive in the top flight.

He’s a likeable character with a tremendous work ethic and a recent track record of goals. In many ways, just like Armstrong.

Can the two find their form together at Southampton? Brereton Diaz was only an accessory to Armstrong’s best form at Blackburn but Russell Martin will need to get the maximum out of both.

Whether he can achieve that may dictate how Saints fare this season.