Southampton were once seen as well-established Premier League side.
Indeed, before they garnered their recent tag of being a yo-yo team, fluctuating between the promised land and the Championship, the Saints had called the Premier League home for ten straight seasons.
Along the way, the South Coast giants even tasted European action, courtesy of the Europa League, with two straight Europa League finishes clinched in 2016 and 2017.
Eight years on, Southampton are nowhere near these heights anymore, as a lot has changed since the likes of Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman stood on the sidelines.
The Saints do look to be back on the rise now under Tonda Eckert, though, with promotion very much achievable at the end of the 46-game slog in the second tier, as Southampton reside in the playoffs at the time of writing.
There is one Southampton star in Eckert's camp who will be striving to be Southampton's modern-day iteration of Jose Fonte, in becoming a promotion-winning hero, who then solidifies themselves as a Premier League regular.
The current Southampton star who could be Eckert's own Fonte
Amazingly, the forceful former Southampton number six is still playing at at a very competitive level, despite being 42 years of age, as he lines up for Liga Portugal outfit Casa Pisa.
To this day, though, he's mostly remembered for being a dependable warrior at St. Mary's, when looking at his varied career, with a bumper 288 appearances under his belt for Southampton in total.
154 of those would fall in the top-flight, but the veteran defender is also remembered as a classy performer in the Championship, with his humble beginnings in the EFL standing him in good stead to explode into life at the very top.
Seven goals and 11 assists would be tallied up by Fonte from his 124 appearances in the EFL's elite league, but this proved to be just the beginning, as he was then referred to as a "great professional" in the Premier League by the aforementioned Koeman.
The ultimate professional
Eerily, the centre-back titan who could follow in his footsteps, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, has also been praised as an "ultimate professional" in much the same way Fonte was regularly praised for being a model case to follow, by Eckert.
He also has the same grit built into his game, like Fonte, that should mean he can make the step-up look effortless to the Premier League, with a powerful seven duels won when Southampton comfortably eased past Oxford United 2-0, just before the international break.
With five goals and one assist next to his name, too, which rivals Fonte's reputation for being an impactful weapon to latch onto from free-kicks and corner kicks, Eckert looks to have a leader in his ranks whom he can build his defence around, if promotion is sealed.
Hopefully, Harwood-Bellis sticks by Southampton for the foreseeable, with West Ham United ultimately snapping up Fonte when the Saints suffered a dip in league position, to somewhat sour his St Mary's legacy.
Still, his career trajectory from EFL competitor to Premier League stalwart is an inspiring arc Harwood-Bellis will want to closely follow, with the ex-Manchester City youngster only featuring a meagre 34 times, to date, in the bright lights of the top division.