Saints fans in the 20-30 age group might vote for Wayne Bridge as their greatest ever left back.
Wayne Bridge made quite a controversial debut for Saints on the opening day of the 1998/99 season against Liverpool at the Dell, Dave jones having survived a rather mixed first season was trying to show he was boss, the starting line up contained 3 debutants in Scott Hiley, Stuart Ripley & Mark Hughes, whilst two of the subs would also be playing their first game for the club James Beattie and Wayne Bridge.
But the controversy was that Matt Le Tissier was only on the bench, when John Beresford playing on the left of midfield limped off on 7 minutes all of the crowd assumed that Le god would be the natural replacement, but it was not to be, instead on came Bridge for his debut.
At that time Bridge had never played left back, he was a wide left midfield player, so although it was a like for like swap it was not the most obvious one in that Le Tissier had been joint top scorer the previous season and had finished it strongly, it was a clear case of the obstinate jones wanting to prove himself boss, this was a trait that would lead to his lack of success at the Dell, but thats another story.
Bridge would play 15 games(8) as sub in his debut season but only one of them would be at left back and this was only because of an injury crisis and no one else to play there, at the end of the season the general feeling amongst Saints fans was that Bridge had plenty of talent but lacked confidence and was therefore failing to capitalise on that undoubted skill, perhaps the main reason for that was the pressure he was put under by the manager, he was the unwitting pawn inbetween Jones and Le Tissier, the number 7 was in fairness struggling with injury and Jones was desperate for Bridge to replace him permanently, it was unfare on the 18 year old.
1999/00 didnt start well for Bridge he was back in the reserves and opportunities were rare, then came his chance, with Benali injured and patrick Colleter struggling he was thrown in for a run of games at left back, with the weight of replacing Le Tissier off his shoulders he revelled in his new position and made it its own, Francis Benali would not start a first team league game for another three years and even then the two he played when Bridge was injured would be his last. Bridge even weighed in with his opening goal for the club a powerful effort from a free kick that Le Tissier himself would have been proud of in the final game of the season.
2000/01 would be the season that Bridge came of age, he was ever present in the league also playing in all the cup games, his only blip being he was sub at Mansfield as a few fringe players were given a game, by now he was considered one of the best young players in the country and had U21 caps for england to his name.
2001/02 saw him go one better he started and finished every game in every competition for a 100% record, he also gained his first England cap and went to the World cup in Japan, being trusted enough to come on for the final 10 minutes in a vital win against Argentina.
The next season though would be his last for the club, by now he was seen as second only to Ashley Cole as left back, indeed both played in the same side as England played at St mary's in a Euro qualifyer.
On Boxing Day 2002 he had broken Alan Shearer's record for consecutive premiership games played and this continued till he finally had to miss a game in January 2003 when Francis Benali returned for his final games.
His final game for the Club would be the 2003 cup final and after this season there were many who considered him better than Cole, one of these was new Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich who made him one of the first signings of the Chelsea revolution.
Having played 161(13) times for Saints and scoring 2 goals Wayne is a definate contender for the greatest left back ever to have played for the club, Peach shades it on games played and goals, Bridge shades it on England caps and the fact all his games were in the top flight, its very very close, I think the deciding factors though are games played and that 76 Winners medal, if bridge had stayed one more season I think he might well be rightly called our best ever left back, but for me its still just about David Peach, but only just.