Southampton: Former Saints striker was tricked into signing for club

Quotes from the agent of former Southampton striker Papa Waigo have revealed that the player was tricked into signing for the club back in the 2009/10 season.

Constantino Nicoletti, the agent of the Senagalese forward, has told the story of how he managed to convince his client that he was joining a Championship club in London – not a League One side on the South Coast.

Waigo went on to contribute well during his one campaign in England but it seems his move to St Mary’s wasn’t truthfully sold to him.

Speaking to tuttomercatoweb.com, Nicoletti said:

"“In order to convince Papa, I told him: ‘Look, you can go to London, it’s the second tier of English football, but a very important shop window and you can really make the difference there.”"

Notably, Nicoletti went on to explain that his client enjoyed his time in England so much that he wanted to sign permanently. Fiorentina’s demands were too high for the deal to happen though.

In all, Papa Waigo played 39 games in all competitions for Saints and weighed in with some important goals.

Multiple strikes in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, including one in a 4-1 win over Carlisle United in the Wembley final, helped hugely in the club’s triumph in the competition that year.

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He was certainly an unconventional player though and seemed to be offside more than he was onside if I remember rightly, but he did work well in an unconventional season for Saints all round.

Since his time on the South Coast, he has spent most of his time playing in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and he still plays for Masafi Sports Club in the latter.

Papa Waigo was one of 16 players who joined Saints during the 2009/10 campaign either permanently or on loan as they rebuilt under new management and faced the 10-point deduction that had been placed on them.

Alan Pardew was appointed as the man to lead Saints back to the Championship, whilst new ownership had saved the club from liquidation and brought in the steely-eyed Italian Nicola Cortese.

Some significant players left the club during that time as they didn’t want to drop down to the third-tier, but some others that replaced them became legends in the successive promotions that eventually came about.

Rickie Lambert and Jose Fonte both signed for over £1m and were seen as big investments at the time, but their contributions in Saints’ rise up to the Premier League made them bargains when the deals are looked back on.

Promotion didn’t quite come under Alan Pardew, but a season that included a Wembley win and a seventh-place finish after overcoming a 10-point deficit after a squad overhaul is an important part of Saints’ rise back to the top-flight.