TWENTY years ago today the biggest flop in Saints history graced the turf at The Dell.

Then Saints manager Graeme Souness was recommended unknown striker Ali Dia by someone posing as George Weah.

Injury problems then forced Souness to give Dia an appearance from the bench against Leeds United in the Premier League - after seeing him in just one training session.

Dia, who had been turned away by several other clubs, was so bad that a red-faced Souness hauled his new number 33 back off again after 53 incredibly inept minutes.

Despite the embarrassment for Souness, the story of Dia has provided us all with a chuckle or two.

And now, two decades on, we can recount those glorious Dia moments.

Dia duped Saints’ management team into of Premier League football in 1996, after claiming he was the cousin of World Footballer of the Year Weah.

He came on against Leeds for an injured Matthew Le Tissier after 32 minutes and immediately almost scored, but after that he attempted to cover up his inability by avoiding the ball and Souness took him off five minutes before the end.

Le Tissiser said: "He ran around the pitch like Bambi on ice, it was very embarrassing to watch."

Dia was essentially a conman.

He had actually only appeared in the lower leagues in France and Germany and had failed trials at Bournemouth, Port Vale and Gillingham, although did feature once for non-League side Blyth Spartans.

After his calamitous but memorable cameo in the 2-0 defeat to Leeds, Dia soon scuttled off from Saints, later appearing for non-league side Gateshead.

He lasted just two weeks of his one month contract at The Dell.

It transpired the person that duped Souness, pretending to be Weah, was a university friend of Dia's.

The imposter claimed that Dia had played for Paris Saint-Germain and Senegal.

They had tried but failed to trick West Ham manager Harry Redknapp, but got lucky with Souness.

And the rest is history.