HE IS the most expensive footballer Southampton FC have ever sold.

And this coming Saturday Sadio Mane makes his first return to the club that gave him his Premier League chance.

Eyebrows were raised when Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp splashed out a staggering £34m on the Senegalese international back in the summer.

After all, Mane had finished last season as Saints’ top league marksman with 11 goals – but prior to the last eight games of the campaign he had only scored three.

A run of eight goals in the closing weeks of 2015-16 – including a double strike as Saints dramatically came from 0-2 down to beat Klopp’s men 3-2 at St Mary’s in March – no doubt helped swell his price tag.

Even for a club of Liverpool’s size, £34m is a very large sum of money – especially for a player who showed great inconsistency during his time at St Mary’s.

Klopp knew what he was doing though.

He had been an admirer of the player from his time in German football when Mane was playing across the border at Salzburg in Austria.

And Mane has made a big impact in his time at Anfield, as Liverpool have hit top spot in English football for the first time since 2014.

Mane has already scored six goals in his opening 10 league games for Liverpool.

Following his double strike against Watford last weekend, he is averaging a goal every 145 minutes.

That contrasts with his 2014-15 league record in his first season at Saints, which was a goal every 213 minutes (10 goals in 2,135 minutes).

This season’s scoring rate is also far better than his 2015-16 at St Mary’s, which was a goal every 237 minutes.

As you can see, the 24-year-old Senegalese international has wasted no time making an impact at Anfield.

That wasn’t the case at Saints, where he scored just once in his first 10 league outings for Saints after an £11m move from Salzburg in August 2014.

Indeed, following his miserable display in Saints’ League Cup humiliation at third tier Sheffield United in December of that year, there were large question marks over whether he would avoid being labelled an expensive flop.

No one who saw his performance at Bramall Lane would ever have thought Saints would sell him for over £30m less than two years later.

In addition to his goals, Mane also has two assists to his name in 2016-17 – again, a stat that compares favourably to just three in 2014-15 (when he appeared in 30 of Saints’ 38 league games) and six (in 37 appearances) in 2015-16.

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Sadio Mane will make his first St Mary’s return as one of the outstanding players in European football this term.
He is currently ranked 11th in a list of the most impressive performers across the top five European leagues - the Premier League, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue1.
According to respected website whoscored.com, Mane is the 11th best rated player out of the 1,450 who have appeared in one of those five divisions with a 7.87 average.
Of the ten above him, two are Liverpool colleagues - further underlining the club’s superb start to the 2016/17 season.
Phillipe Coutinho is third with an 8.09 average, and another Brazilian, Roberto Firminho, is sixth with 7.91.
Barcelona’s Neymar is the top ranked player across the five divisions with an 8.32 average, followed by Roma’s Edin Dzekoo (8.11).
Chelsea’s Eden Hazard is fourth with 8.03 and Toni Kroos of Real Madrid is fifth with 7.89.
Mane is the fifth highest ranked Premier League performer in the list, out of the 284 players who have appeared so far.
Virgil Van Dijk is the highest placed Saint in the list - the Dutchman is 26th.