Dušan Tadić avoided a Europa League offer last month and now, a penalty claim has been raised against him on that very stage.
The first month after a blockbuster transfer window is always a lethargic patch for club football fans, and Southampton fans have felt that in the past ten days. The patience needs to be stretched on for an additional ten evenings, because after that comes the perfect substitute for an action-packed recruiting market.
All European competitions reassemble into the competitive fold, and Europa League remains the one tournament in particular where the Southampton fanbase doesn't require reasons to hop onto the fixture list.
After all, not watching the many Southampton graduates, former stars as well as past flops pulling up their socks on a stage selected for top-tier elites is the second challenge Saints don't like doing.
The first is always catching up for the second half where Southampton needs goals to overturn the result. Hopefully, we don't have to mind it today and for the Europa League, there are former figures like Russell Martin and Jan Bednarek who can emerge as the biggest successes from this coming campaign.
Saints should respect Tadić's confident trait instead of criticising him
In all honesty, Dušan Tadić would have been accompanying the duo had he not knocked away a Crvena Zvezda approach. Moreover, a penalty claim has also been billed on the 36-year-old which came in Southampton's colours.
As quoted by the EFL Analysis, Charlie Austin suggested to Under the Cosh podcast: "He [Tadić] always took the penalties before I arrived but I wanted to take it. I put the ball down and he came to try and take the ball and he said 'I take the penalties'.
These kind of instances, mostly end well on a friendly note and atleast it's what Southampton fans felt from the surface.
The reason being that Austin concluded with: "We were having a full Mexican standoff like 10 minutes into the Europa League. Luckily I scored."
Well, one can apply a slightly selfish tag on Tadić but these occasions differentiate decisive players. Wish it wasn't upto this, but Southampton are running low on these traits the wide attacker possessed.