Jack Stephens is winning back the hearts and minds of Southampton fans after being made the scapegoat for an appalling season in the Premier League and an equally challenging start to the season in the Championship.
He won't want to be reminded about his spat with Marc Cucurella this time last year which ended with Stephens pulling the Spaniard's hair and getting himself sent off. Chelsea were already 3-1 up that night and things for Stephens got progressively worse.
Throughout pre-season, Southampton fans continued to give the Saints captain a hard time and analyse isolated errors.
Stephen's fall from grace under Still explained
The new manager, Will Still, promised to stand by his captain and seemingly had his faith repaid when Stephens popped up in stoppage time to give the Saints an opening day victory at home to newly promoted Wrexham.
Stephens started the first six games under Still before being inexplicably dropped to the bench after Saints went down 3-1 away at Hull City.
The club captain spent the next six games out of the squad, sparking rumours of a rift (denied by Stephens), and only came on against Blackburn Rovers as a makeshift midfielder due to illness ravaging the squad.
When Southampton lined up to face Preston North End, in what would turn out to be Still's last game in charge, Stephens was sent to warm the bench again.
Eckert shares the reason why he dropped Stephens twice
But, under Tonda Eckert, it's been a very different story. Restored to the side as captain in Eckert's first game as interim, away at Queens Park Rangers, Stephens gave the Saints fans a reminder of just what he is about.
A passionate and resolute performance alongside Nathan Wood and Taylor Harwood-Bellis gave Southampton the platform to go on and win the match. Eckert had his first win in charge and Stephens was back at the heart of matters.
Stephens started the next two, against Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton, before being replaced by Quarshie for the Leicester City match at St Mary's.
After stretching the winning run to four games on the bounce as interim, Eckert hardly needed to explain himself to the media. When he did speak to the Daily Echo, he was quick to point out that the decision had been simply tactical - based on the opposition's strengths.
"Looking at the profiles of players Leicester has; they have a very quick front three. We wanted to match that with Josh Quarshie; that was the idea."
It's time to raise a different question about the back 3
Eckert's explanation was not questioned and it was not surprising when Stephens was selected for the next two matches ahead of the German Under-21 international.
The competition between Quarshie and Stephens is close, but the boss doesn't really see it that way. He doesn't view the two players as similar despite playing in the same position.
“I don't really see it that way. It's just sometimes when you look at what's coming up against you, there are just some images that pop into your head.
“You go through it with the staff, and then it was a decision made for this game today. I think that Josh has had a very good performance.
“But I wouldn't try to make a connection between those two players.“
There is no denying that Quarshie has done well when he has come in.
But Jack Stephens was clearly missed in the last 30 minutes against West Brom on Tuesday night.
Perhaps a better question doesn't connect the two players at all. If Joshua Quarshie is in the team, shouldn't the real competition for places be between Stephens and Nathan Wood? But that's a question for another day.