Southampton should have prioritised Will Lankshear over big-money Lewis Dobbin move

Southampton put their money where their mouth is with their summer signings.

For the most part, the big spending has paid off, with Daniel Peretz continuing to be a reliable goalkeeper for Tonda Eckert's promotion hopefuls, having cost around £6m to sign permanently in June.

Cyle Larin re-signing for £2.5m sticks out as a bargain, too, as he has seven Championship goals next to his name from only 11 outings.

There's also Keven Schlotterbeck, who has been worth every single bit of his £3m price-tag since arriving from Augsburg, with two second tier goals under his belt, and dominant defensive displays becoming commonplace, with 4.7 duels won on average per league clash.

Unfortunately, the biggest splurge from Southampton's busy summer hasn't quite worked out so far, with Lewis Dobbin stuck on just one goal from 13 league matches, having cost a wild £9m to obtain.

Southampton's £9m blunder

Dobbin was meant to be the Saints' statement summer purchase.

He would be signed for an eye-catching £9m after an excellent 2025/26 season out on loan with Preston North End, with the former Aston Villa youngster bagging 11 goals, and picking up eight assists on the books of the Lilywhites.

Villa decided to cash in on him after this red-hot season in Lancashire, with Southampton's technical director Johannes Spor stating, after the bold signing was made, that he anticipated Dobbin to "thrive with us not only next season, but in the years ahead."

In the here and now, he is flopping, instead of thriving, as he has just one goal to shout about from 662 minutes of action for Eckert and Co.

That one strike did come about at the London Stadium, as the South Coast giants beat West Ham United 3-2, but he was poor against his ex-side last time out, who are rooted to the bottom of the Championship table, as he failed to register a single meaningful effort at Preston's net.

For £9m, Southampton would've been expecting so much more, with plenty of regrets in the air right now that they didn't use these millions to priorities the signature of Will Lankshear, who continues to look head and shoulders above the rest for Middlesbrough.

They should've priortised Will Lankshear

Before the ex-Tottenham Hotspur wonder-kid moved to the Riverside, he was tipped to be moving to St. Mary's.

Indeed, EFL-focused journalist Darren Witcoop - back in July - would note that Lankshear was attracting interest from the Saints.

Only a matter of days after Witcoop broke this news, however, Boro would announce the one-time Oxford United loanee as their big attacking signing for a whopping £10m, which is only £1m more than it cost Eckert's men to land the hot-and-cold Dobbin.

If they could have time travel on their side right now, they would definitely go back in time to ensure they put up more of a fight to try and win Lankshear's signature, as the 6-foot-2 menace is currently on a sensational run of 13 goals from 13 Championship matches this season.

He has certainly lived up to the praise he was handed at the Kassam by his ex-U's boss Matt Bloomfield, who labelled him as a striker who is "born to score goals."

Amazingly, Boro did have Dobbin in their sights, but they went ahead with a deal for Lankshear, when the underwhelming 23-year-old opted to move to the South Coast.

This could be a huge sliding doors moment, as Kim Hellberg's side - at the time of writing - occupy an automatic promotion spot, with Lankshear scoring a huge chunk of Boro's 30 goals.

Southampton sit a little bit behind in seventh position, on 24 points, next to Boro's 29-point tally, with Dobbin's catalogue of missed chances potentially coming back to bite them.

The return of Larin after the international break is a welcome boost, thankfully, as he somehow tries to catch up with the blistering goalscoring exploits of the deadly number seven, who has been praised as doing "really well" by Ballon Dor winner Harry Kane.

Dobbin, unsurprisingly, isn't being mentioned in these same conversations...

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow