Is Saints left back Dan Harding set to head back to the Championship and join the Dave Jones revolution at Sheffield Wednesday ?

Rumour is in the football world that Wednesday are about to make a bid for Dan Harding who found himself a little out in the cold last season at St Mary's, despite signing a new 3 year deal at the start of the season.

At the start of the campaign Harding had a lot to look forward to, he had been in the main the first choice left back in the league 1 promotion campaign, although at times Ryan Dickson had mounted a challenge for his slot, Harding had held on and after being selected for the opening games had every right to think that he would again be the first choice.

But before the season was very old Nigel Adkis showed that he felt that the left back area was a spot that needed improving, some said that Danny Fox had been bought to back up Harding, but the reality was a Championship club dont spend the sort of money that Saints did on Harding to sit on the bench, Harding started the first five games but that would be almost half of his eventual dozen games in the starting line up completed before the season was  out of its first month, he made a couple of starts, strangely replacing Fox in midweek fixtures and then came his gaff against Pompey when brought on as sub with the game seemingly won late on.

But perhaps Nigel Adkins felt that he deserved a chance to redeem himself , and he was back in the starting line up for the trip to his old club Brighton, under pressure from the home crowd he dived in rashly in a few challenges and after a booking, Adkins could be seen hastily getting Fox ready with harding subbed off after 40 minutes, he did return for the next league game though but this time at right back, he played well against Forest as Saints won 3-0 and kept his place for the following game Leicester at home, in truth he wasnt the only Saints player on an off day, but it was now clear that he was a squad player, handy to have on the bench due to his ability to play on either side, but certainly Fox was now the undeniable first choice.

Hardings League season as mentioned consisted of 12 startsand a further 8 as sub, most of these averaged around 10 mins on the pitch as the clock was run down and some like the Pompey home fixture less than a minute of normal time, Nigel Adkins couldnt make the situation clearer.

So where now for Harding ? turning 29 in December and with no Premier league experience he is unlikely to figure much next season for a manager who didnt consider him good enough for the Championship, but he is likely to be on a deal that with two years left to run will include enhancements for promotion to the premiership, so does he sit tight and effectively see out the tail end of his peak years agewise or does he look to play football elsewhere which although will almost certainly see him drop in wages, would see him playing football.

If Dave Jones does come a calling it will be an attractive offer for Harding, the Hillsbrough club are ambitious after their promotion, so in that matter its likely to be as good an offer as any other club in the Championship.

If Harding does go then he has given good sevice to Saints, I dont dislike him I merely saw his limitations and therefore felt that he wasnt as good as what we had, I cant accuse him of not trying and therefore he did have some good games, sadly though he had faults in his game that cost us dearly, before anyone starts on me, Nigel Adkins clearly saw these as well otherwise he wouldnt have signed Fox.

Good luck to Dan Harding, sadly with football the way it is these days, all clubs promoted to the premiership have to improve their squads with no room for sentimentalty, Harding is sure to be surplus to requirements this coming term as Adkins strengthens and needs to free up places, there will be those that played a lot more games for Saints last term than Dan Harding did and will find themselves in the same boat im afraid.         

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 10:03 - Jun 29 I think it is fair to say that DH is not a premiership standard left back and would therefore not get alot of football. However for a free transfer he has been great for Saints and I will always remember him fondly as he played a big part in our climb back to the summit. I think Fox's transfer fee rather than his peformances were the main reason behind the number of games he played lasy season. There is little between them and we certainly did not MISS Fox when he wasnt playing. Good article Nick and we should ALL thank DH if indeed he does leave us in the near future. There is nothing at all to dislike about the lad.

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SaintNick added 10:30 - Jun 29 Funny how people perceive players mike, you say we did not miss Fox when he wasnt playing, inferring that Harding slipped seamlessly in the side, a look at the fixtures shows that after making his full debut against Nottingham Forest after 3 games as sub, Fox only missed 3 games, 2 midweek fixtures at home against Peterborough & Hull when he was rested and the game at Brighton when as mentioned Harding had completely lost the plot and had to be substituted before half time before he was sent off, so although we perhaps didnt miss Fox in the Hull & Posh games, we certainly did in that third one , perception is often different from reality, I have often found that when i have looked at things in black and white its not actually what i remember

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darkangelv2 added 16:01 - Jun 29 Perception is a funny thing. I perceived things the same as stmichael. Like you say Nick, we have very few games to judge Hardings ability in championship. But then we had a lot to judge Fox on. Set pieces were often excellent. Defence was often poor. What we don't have is enough to compare them against each other (wasn't Harding right back in one of those games?!). Cortese wouldn't have been best pleased if his most expensive acquisition to date was left out now would he?

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SaintNick added 16:11 - Jun 29 Two years ago i said that harding was a weak link in league 1 i still stand by that, there is a reason why we havent had much to go on and that is Fox delivered and harding didnt get much of a look in after that, in fairness when Fox arrived Harding stayed in the team, and he got a couple of chances to show what he could do but didnt take them, when lallana was out the option was there to put both Harding and fox on the left it wasnt taken, lets face it Adkins made the choice not me

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felly1 added 13:21 - Jul 1 The main point and I feel is probably the truth of this debate is most fans would agree that Harding had weaknesses in his game that meant replacing him would eventually happen. Equally Fox is a better player but for 1.8 million he has not really looked particulary great at times either. His main strength is a good set piece delivery no question but defensively he clearly is not the best!

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