January transfer window: Saints' top five signings - and five of their worst

Grzegorz Rasiak

The Polish striker was signed by George Burley for the second time at the end of the 2006 window.

Having signed him for Derby from Italian club Siena in the summer of 2004, Burley did so again - initially on loan from Tottenham.

Rasiak plundered 18 Championship goals in 2004/05, earning himself a £2m move to Tottenham.

But his White Hart Lane career never took off and he jumped at the chance to link up again with Burley at St Mary’s.

Rasiak struck four goals in 13 Championship appearances in 2005/06, including a brace in a 2-1 win at Stoke.

Signed permanently in the summer of 2006 for £2m, he was top scorer with 21 league and cup goals in his first full season, 2006/07.

Marek Saganowski 

Like Rasiak, another Polish striker to initially arrive at St Mary’s on loan.

In his case, Saganowski was signed from French club Troyes at the end of the January 2007 window.

He was an instant hit, belting 10 goals in 12 Championship appearances as Saints made the play-offs.

Included in his tally was a hat-trick when Saints equalled their record away league win - triumphing 6-0 at fellow high fliers Wolves.

Like Rasiak, he was also signed permanently after his loan expired.

Unlike Rasiak, though, the goals then dried up - only managing to score twice in the league in his first full season, 2007/08.

Saganowski made six League 1 appearances for Saints two seasons later before leaving St Mary’s - a low-key end to a career in English football that had started so promisingly.

Jose Fonte

Saints were in the third division when Alan Pardew persuaded the Crystal Palace centre half to step down a tier in January 2010.

Fonte cost Saints £1.2m - a huge sum for a League 1 club.

But Saints were no ordinary League 1 club, and Fonte knew that.

He could probably see that, post-Markus Liebherr takeover, the club were starting to arrest six years of decline.

He would be proved right in seeing that, but even Fonte must be amazed by how much Saints have achieved since he swapped Selhurst Park for St Mary’s.

Personally, he has made 288 appearances in all competitions and helped Saints win back to back promotions, finish in the top six of the Premier League, and qualify for the Europa League two years running.

In addition, he has helped Portugal win the 2016 European Championships.

Only in recent months did Fonte’s love affair with Saints start to turn sour, leading to a transfer request and subsequent departure to West Ham.

It would be a crying shame if the manner of his departure overshadowed his superb Saints career.

Jason Puncheon

The winger arrived in the same window as Fonte, a £250,000 signing from Plymouth Argyle.

Puncheon had impressed against Saints earlier in the season while on loan to MK Dons from the Devon club.

Puncheon immediately won a regular place in Alan Pardew’s attack-minded Saints, and played his part in some rampant League 1 displays - a 5-0 thrashing of Huddersfield and 5-1 triumphs over Walsall and Bristol Rovers.

Puncheon was also a regular for the first few months of 2010/11 until the end of October. After that, he was sent on loan to first Millwall and then, after a brief return to St Mary’s, to Premier League club Blackpool.

It was bizarre - the player was surplus to requirements at a third division club but wanted by a top flight one!

Loaned out again to QPR at the start of 2011/12, Puncheon hardly played before returning once more to Saints in January 2012 and making several appearances as the club won promotion to the Premier League.

Back in the top flight, he established himself in Saints’ first XI - surprising all the fans who had thought his St Mary’s career was over on more than one occasion.

He struck six goals as Saints put their early season woes behind them to maintain their Premier League status.

Croydon-born Puncheon, though, was keen to return to south London so it might perfect sense to loan him to Crystal Palace ahead of the 2013/14 season.

The move was made permanent the following January.

Now 30, Puncheon remains a regular in the Palace XI, though he has yet to score in 21 appearances this season.

Billy Sharp

He was signed by his former Scunthorpe boss Nigel Adkins in January 2012 for £1.7m from Doncaster for one reason.

That was to help provide extra firepower to aid Saints’ push towards promotion to the Premier League.

Sharp did just that.

After scoring once in his first seven games, he struck eight times in Saints’ last eight Championship games - including doubles against former club Doncaster, Portsmouth and Peterborough.

Having helped Saints reach the promised land, Sharp immediately fell out of favour.

He appeared as a sub in the first two Premier League games of 2012/13, and then scored in a League Cup win at Stevenage.

And that was it, he never appeared for Saints again in a competitive game - instead being loaned out to Nottingham Forest, Reading and Doncaster prior to being released in the summer of 2014.

He spent a season at Leeds before returning to Sheffield United for his third spell with the Blades.

Sharp is still a regular scorer, with 18 to his name this season - making it 179 in his league career and 190 in all competitions in all.

And here are five of Saints’ worst January transfer window signings.

Stephen O’Halloran

The Republic of Ireland international was recruited on loan from Aston Villa midway through the 2008 window by boss George Burley.

The manager left shortly afterwards, though, and O’Halloran’s only first team appearance came as a second half sub in a 1-0 home loss to Norwich, coming on as a 65th minute replacement for Bradley Wright-Phillips in a forgettable Championship game.

Stern John missed a penalty for Saints, while current Saint Ryan Bertrand was in the Canaries side on loan from Chelsea.

O’Halloran had won two senior caps for his country in the summer 2007 before he had ever made a professional appearance for his club. Indeed, he never made a first team outing in four years at Villa Park prior to moving to Coventry in 2010.

He signed for Salford City in the summer of 2015 and last season scored in an FA Cup tie against Hartlepool that was screened live on BBC TV.

Iago Falque

The Spaniard arrived on loan at St Mary’s midway through the 2012 window.

Having been signed by Tottenham from Juventus in the summer of 2011, he had only played six times for Spurs prior to moving to St Mary’s - five times in the Europa League and once in the FA Cup.

Nigel Adkins started him in a 2-0 home loss to Leicester City, and bringing him off in the 56th minute for Steve De Ridder.

And that was it. He never appeared for Saints again.

Since then, Falque has been a regular scorer in Italy. He netted 13 times in 32 matches for Genoa in 2014/15, form that earnt him a move to Roma.

He is currently on loan to Torino, and has netted an impressive eight times in 16 Serie A appearances.

Jonathan Forte 

Nigel Adkins signed his former Scunthorpe striker on a permanent deal in 2011.

He was never going to be an immediate first choice - not when Rickie Lambert and Lee Barnard were up front and scoring regularly.

Forte was to only make 11 league appearances in three and a half years at St Mary’s - all but one of which was to come in 2010/11.

He scored just two goals - but what important strikes they were.

Coming on as a sub at home to MK Dons in March 2010 with Saints 2-0 down, Forte had a remarkable impact.

Within five minutes of coming on, he had scored twice - and Lee Barnard completed Saints’ comeback with a late winner in a dramatic League 1 contest.

Forte only made two league starts for Saints - in a 1-0 home win over Bristol Rovers in April 2010 and in the 2-1 win at Brighton, where he was replaced at half-time by Adam Lallana.

Forte scored 18 goals in two League 1 seasons for Oldham after being released by Saints in the summer of 2014.

He is currently Notts County’s top scorer with seven goals as the Magpies attempt to avoid being relegated to non league football.

Tadanari Lee 

Signed in a blaze of hype in the 2012 window, Lee arrived from Sanfrecce Hiroshima with a growing reputation.

How he much cost Saints was never made public, with some reports claiming the club paid around £1.5m for his services.

He was a hero in his home country of Japan, having scored the winning goal in the 2011 Asian Cup final against Australia.

Lee was to make just 14 appearances in all competitions for Saints, scoring twice.

His only league goal, against Derby a few weeks after arriving at St Mary’s, was voted the club’s Goal of the Season for 2011/12.

His last first team outing was in a League Cup loss at Sunderland in November 2013, with Saints cancelling his contract two months later. He returned to his native country to sign for J-League club Urawa Red Diamonds.

Vegard Forren

Though O’Halloran and Falque only played in one game for Saints, that was still one more than the Norwegian defender managed.

Signed for £4m on the same day Nigel Adkins was sacked and replaced by Mauricio Pochettino in 2013, Forren returned to his native country at the end of the season having only warmed the bench at St Mary’s.

It was never explained who sanctioned the signing - did Adkins want the player, or did Pochettino? Or was it down to then executive chairman Nicola Cortese?