While Taylor Harwood-Bellis has gone on to look like a sensational bit of business, with the Southampton titan now worth every bit of the £20m he once cost to win from Manchester City in the summer of 2024, the Saints haven't always struck gold with defensive signings in recent times.
Indeed, while Harwood-Bellis has become a reliable force in the heart of Tonda Eckert's defence, with 12 goals even next to his name as an aerial monster, the likes of Armel Bella-Kotchap never managed to consolidate themselves as a favourite at St. Mary's.
Now on the books of Hellas Verona, the £8.6m recruit would only collect three clean sheets from 31 South Coast appearances.
Ronnie Edwards will also go down as a failure of a signing, as he arrived to St. Mary's with plenty of promise, but never managed to settle.
Edwards flopping at Southampton
Edwards would link up with the Saints the same summer Harwood-Bellis made his South Coast stay permanent, costing around the £3m mark to land from Peterborough United.
In Cambridgeshire, the young defender was highly rated, with 142 games coming his way, after he made his senior Posh debut at just 17 years of age.
Darren Ferguson, who managed the now 23-year-old, all throughout his Peterborough development, would go as far as to note in 2022 that Edwards was "easily the best young player I've managed."
Well known for being a calm passer of the ball from out the back, with a 92% pass accuracy during his final League One season with the Posh, the hope would have been that Edwards would fit in at Southampton under Russell Martin, who loves a possession-heavy style approach.
Unfortunately, while Harwood-Bellis became a regular, Edwards was banished to the periphery, with a lot of untapped potential falling to the wayside, consequently.
He would make just 16 appearances for the Saints in both the Premier League, and Championship, before he was offloaded to Queens Park Rangers for £4.5m last summer. The R's took a liking to the 23-year-old during the 2024/25 season on loan, with two goals collected from 21 outings during that loan stint.
He has since become a regular at Loftus Road, with EFL pundit Sam Parkin noting that he had been an "outstanding" addition last February, before the R's forked out £4.5m.
His reinvigorated form in West London hasn't slipped under the radar, though, which will be a blow to Julien Stéphan's men, as Edwards looks set for a big move away from QPR, a matter of weeks before the new Championship season kicks off.
He's set for a big move
Rumours suggest that Burnley, as they begin a huge rebuild job with the likes of Maxime Esteve and Jaiden Anthony gone, have pinpointed Edwards as a target to add reinforcements defensively.
The amount the R's want, in order to give up their main defender, is around the £18m ballpark, allegedly, with Southampton surely full of regret now that they didn't sell Edwards on for a higher amount than a measly £4.5m.
In addition to that, they must also be wondering what would have occurred if they'd handed the wide-eyed centre-back more consistent minutes, as he's clearly capable of performing in a lower-end Championship team.
Indeed, Eckert has a knack of getting more out of talents, as seen in Finn Azaz's scary transformation under the German, with Edwards maybe living up to his potential in a different working environment on the South Coast.
If he does sign for the Clarets, he will likely be competing alongside his ex-side for promotion, with Eckert falling back on the likes of Harwood-Bellis and Ryan Manning at the back to soar up the league.
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