Southampton: Souness and Le Tiss explain famous Ali Dia scenario

There are many famous moments that Southampton have been involved in since the Premier League began in 1992.

The club is thought of every time a Matt Le Tissier goal is shown, the fastest goal and fastest hat-trick in the league is mentioned or when the 9-0 defeat to Leicester is brought up once again.

Ali Dia will forever be linked with the club’s top-flight history though after being labelled the worst player to ever play in the Premier League.

Attempting to explain the story, former Saints boss Graeme Souness told Sky Sports:

"“He was hopeless, but we didn’t have enough players for an 8-a-side. So we kept him for a week, and as the week went on we had more and more players getting injured.“Matt (Le Tissier) was our only fit forward, and it’s all his fault because he only lasted about 20 minutes.”"

The full story of Ali Dia

Graeme Souness sets the story straight of how Ali Dia managed to get a game for Southampton in the Premier League 😂Watch the #SkyFootballShow each day from 9-11am on SSN, Sky Sports PL and Main Event 📺

Posted by Sky Sports on Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Ironically, it was Matt Le Tissier – Saints’ best ever player – who was subbed off so that Dia could make his only appearance in the professional English game.

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As is explained by the man himself though, Le Tissier picked up a slight injury in training that worsened when he played in the game against Leeds the following weekend.

In many ways, this story sums up the difference between Premier League football back then and Premier League football nowadays.

Clubs are so much more guarded against making mistakes like this one and would certainly not allow just anyone to come in for a trial based on claims that they are related to another famous player.

Clearly the injury problems that Saints were up against back then hampered them. Squads were much smaller than they are now and club’s had much less money to put together a group that would help them see the season out.

Back then there also seemed to be less of a reliance on the Saints academy.

If any injury issues arise now, a youth player is often promoted to the senior squad to take a place on the bench and get their first taste of a first-team matchday.

This obviously depends on the manager that Saints have in place at the time, and perhaps a Ralph Hasenhuttl would be more prepared to throw a young striker on than a Graeme Souness would.