Liverpool hero was 'horrendous' when he first arrived in England as ex-Southampton star shares little-known insight
Today at 07:00 AM
It would have been a worthwhile investment for Liverpool to build a direct train line from Southampton to Anfield in the mid-2010s.
From 2014 to 2019, Liverpool raided the Saints for Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne, Sadio Mane and Danny Ings, although Southampton did bank an estimated £187million in transfer fees.
Southampton earned plaudits as they punched well above their weight with finishes of eighth, seventh, sixth and eighth from the 2013-14 season to 2016-17.
Those seven players went on to varied levels of success at Liverpool, with van Dijk the only player who remains at Anfield.
But there was one player former Southampton forward Shane Long did not anticipate would go on to greater things.
“When Sadio first came, for the first six months, he was horrendous,” Long told the Fozcast.
“Obviously he wasn’t horrendous, I take that back. He had these moments where you thought, ‘Oh, he’s got something.’ You used to kick him and you’d hurt yourself. He’s got that strength about him. But he’s only small, he’s quick.
“But he could take on everybody and kick it into row Z trying to cross the ball. He could run it off the pitch, those sort of things.
“But then (Ronald) Koeman managed to coach him and train him and stuff, and he just hit this run of form and you thought, ‘Oh my god, this guy can just go to the very, very top.”
Mane moved to St. Mary’s in the 2014 summer window for £12million from Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg.
It took a while for the Senegalese star to get going but he found form over the festive period in his first season and scored three goals in three games, including strikes against Chelsea and Arsenal.
The 32-year-old also ended his debut season in style when he scored the fastest hat-trick in Premier League history against Aston Villa.
Mane needed just two minutes and 56 seconds to smash three goals past Villa in a 6-1 drubbing.
The forward once again had a barren start to the 2015-16 campaign but did scored an 87th-minute equaliser against his future employers in October and was later sent off after he picked up two yellow cards in stoppage time.
In a similar story to his debut season, Mane ended it in style with eight goals in as many games.
During that run, Mane scored twice against Liverpool and smashed a hat-trick past Manchester City as he signed off his Southampton career in style.
He moved to Liverpool in June 2016 for £34m, a fee that made him the most expensive African footballer at the time.
Mane went on to make 269 appearances and scored 120 goals for Liverpool across all competitions during a six-year spell.
He formed a vital part of Liverpool’s attack alongside Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah that helped Liverpool win the Premier League in 2019-20 and the Champions League the season before.
Such was Mane’s brilliance at Liverpool, he was named in the Premier League’s Team of the Season on four occasions.
Mane left Liverpool in June 2022 for Bayern Munich but lasted one season after an injury-hit campaign.
He was also involved in a dressing room bust-up with Leroy Sane and reportedly punched the German in the face after Bayern lost 3-0 to Manchester City in a Champions League quarter final tie.
He now calls Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr home and plays alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.
