When he had a brief cameo appearance against Liverpool in the final game of last season, Sam Amo-Ameyaw made an immediate impression on the Southampton supporters, so they will be glad to hear that he has signed his first professional deal at the club.

It was only a brief glimpse of Sam Amo-Ameyaw as Saints waved goodbye to the Premier League in a 4-4 draw with Liverpool, but a drop of the shoulders to wrong foot his man and a burst of pace suggested that we had a player on our hands.

The first two friendlies of the season at Goztepe & Reading have seen him come on as a substitute and again show that he has the attributes to make it at the top level.

Now Saints have announced that he has signed a professional contract at the club having just turned 17.

But most Saints fans knew little about him if indeed they had heard of him at all when he came on against Liverpool, they were shocked to find he was still only 16 years old. Indeed at 16 years and 314 days, Amo-Ameyaw became the youngest-ever player to appear in the Premier League for Southampton.

He only joined Southampton in August of last year, he had spent his youth days at Tottenham Hotspur, but turned down the offer of a scholarship deal to move to Southampton, presumably like a lot of the other youngsters who have joined us, because he could not see a pathway to the first team at his then club.

He had an impressive first season in the Southampton academy sides that started with some good performances for the Under-18s side, his progression to the U21 team and becoming a key player for that side as they stormed to winning the Premier League 2 title.

This was rewarded by a Premier league debut albeit only a few minutes and after turning 17 on July 18th, he has signed his first Professional contract at St Mary's, a deal that will keep him at the club until 2026.

A recent description of his playing style said this

"With an ability to dribble with the ball “fluidly”, Amo-Ameyaw was said to be adapting from a wider role in his first year at Southampton to a more central number 10 role."

On signing his new deal, Sam had this to say:

"Coming into Southampton the first thing I wanted to do was try and work my way up as quickly as possible.

"Winning the league with B-team [Under-21s], it was a massive achievement for all of and then making my Premier League debut at 16, again a good achievement and I just want to push on now.

“The manager [Russell Martin] wants me to push on, stay in-and-around the first team if I can, get some game time. But keep pushing on and seeing what I can do.”

In the past year or so there have been some exciting players coming through the Academy set up, some coming from other clubs like Amo-Ameyaw and others who have been at the club from an earlier age.

The expectation on them to break through is perhaps more than at any other year in recent times, as a club Saints have to make sure that their is not too much weight on their shoulders, they have to nurture them and bring them on.

The Championship does not have the quality of the Premier League and on one hand that is an advantage in that players like Amo-Ameyaw as well as Dominic Ballard and Tyler Dibling will have a better chance of breaking into the team, but it should be noted that it is also a physical league.

We will perhaps use them sparingly and off the bench, but if we do use them properly then this could be an exciting season.

Photo: Action Images

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