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Can this forgotten Southampton star realise his potential under Tonda Eckert?

This forgotten Southampton star will be hoping he can still realise his potential at St. Mary's.
ByKelan Sarson
Eastleigh v Southampton - Pre-Season Friendly
Eastleigh v Southampton - Pre-Season Friendly | Robin Jones/GettyImages

Southampton didn't let Taylor Harwood-Bellis leaving the building disorient them too much during the hectic summer transfer window.

Of course, it was a blow to lose such a distinguished servant of the club who was a feared defender to come up against in hustle and bustle of the Championship.

But, they've bounced back, with Keven Schlotterbeck comfortably slotting into the backline, alongside Nathan Wood raising his performance levels.

There is a forgotten Saints centre-back who will still believe he has a future at the club, despite Southampton dealing with the agony of losing Harwood-Bellis relatively well, with the defender in question currently out on loan in Austria.

The forgotten Southampton centre-back

Joshua Quarshie has failed to nail down a consistent starting spot at St. Mary's since joining the Saints in the summer of 2025.

Noted as being a "remarkable" presence for how quickly he took advice onboard at Hoffenheim by his ex-Hoffenheim head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo, he has been in and out of the Saints first team picture too much so far to leave a lasting impression.

Indeed, the 6-foot-5 colossus has only made 13 Championship appearances to date since leaving behind Germany for a fresh adventure, with his last second tier outing coming against Oxford United in March.

He has since been moved out on loan to Sturm Graz to gain more gametime, while Schlotterbeck becomes a regular on the South Coast, and he has impressed during his early days in the Austrian Bundesliga.

The 22-year-old, who has lined up for the Germany U21s over the break, has featured three times for his new loan employers so far in league action, with a 2-1 win secured over LASK earlier this month seeing Quarshie win two duels, and accurately complete 24 of his 28 passes out from the back.

Clearly, Quarshie is a talented individual but in the here and now with the Saints, he isn't quite at the required quality to be starting week in week out in a Championship promotion tussle.

The door hasn't been shut on his St Mary's career, though, with Tonda Eckert going out of his way to compliment the one-time Hoffenheim defender, when talking on a wide array of topics before the international break.

Tonda Eckert speaks highly of him

Eckert has utliised Quarshie sparingly during his Saints reign so far.

A minimal 615 minutes of football has been handed to the towering youngster under the German to date, with Will Still giving him more opportunities, just, at 720 minutes, in comparison.

He will hope that these minutes will increase sometime down the line, and Eckert has noted that Quarshie possesses a lot of promising attributes when looking at an ideal centre-back profile.

The 33-year-old stated, right before the break started: "I think he brings so many attributes that a centre-back needs.

"Josh is young, but at the same time, I think if you look at the amount of senior games that he has played so far, it's very little for his age, very little.

"Then you need to decide what the best development step is for his career. We can't guarantee that he's going to start every game or every other game.

"The next step that he needs for his personal development is to play minutes, and then you just have some conversations of how we see the squad.

"At the very moment, and considering what a role for him here would look like, we came to the decision that it's best for him to play week in, week out."

It was the correct call to loan the fringe defender out, as he is sticking out during his early days at the Liebenauer Stadium.

The worry will just be whether he actually goes on to realise his potential at St. Mary's or whether he will be moved away from the South Coast for good, as the first team minutes he craves never comes his way.

Eckert might not even be around to see what becomes of Quarshie, as he could well be removed from proceedings at Southampton, if the FA hand him the harshest possible sanction for Spygate.

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