Ex Saints manager Lawrie McMenemy has been rewarded for his service to football management by the League Managers Association.
The genial Geordie ex guardsman as he is often described in the national press has been elected into the LMA's "1000 Club" this is reserved for managers who have managed at least a thousand games in their managerial career.
He qualified after the LMA decided to take overseas and international matches into account and McMenemy had a spell as boss of Northern Ireland in the 1990's.
His managerial career started at Doncaster, progressed to Grimsby and then in the summer of 1973 he was appointed team manager designate at Saints, the reality was that he was manager in all but name and the idea was a transitional period where Ted Bates would handover to the new boss, that happened in the November of that year, although things would start to go wrong almost from that point and Saints were relegated.
McMenemy endured a torrid time from Saints fans the following season and there were rumours he might be sacked, however Saints kept faith with him for 1975/76 and although the crowd were still not quite behind him at the start of that season, by the end of it they definately were as he won the FA Cup and the rest as they say is history.
He left Saints in 1985, the surprise being that it wasnt for one of the big names that had courted him during his spell at the Dell, but Sunderland who at the time were no better than Saints who were now a top five side, many thought he had gone for the money rather than to chase glory.
Sunderland strangely ended his league managerial career as they were relegated and he was sacked after less than two years in the job, he then worked in the media before joining new England manager Graham Taylor as his assistant.
In January 1994 he returned to the Dell as director of football and his first task was to find a new manager after Ian Branfoot was sacked, the dreamteam of Alan Ball and Lawrie seemed to be working on the surface, but underneath all was not well and Ball resigned himself in controversial circumstances to go to Man City in the summer of 95.
McMenemy remained though till June 1997 when he rashly decided to resign after the departure of Graeme Souness and the arrival of Rupert Lowe.
His short spell as boss of Northern Ireland followed before a spell in the football wilderness although his media career flourished in the early 00's
In 2006 he once again returned to Saints as part of the Michael Wilde era, although this was to be short lived and when in 2008 Rupert Lowe returned for his final spell McMenemy left again.
What cannot be denied though is that along with Ted Bates he is the most succesful and influential Saints manager of all time, spending 12 seasons as boss and therefore over 500 league games plus countless other cup ties in both domestic and European football it is probably fair to say that Southampton Football Club will never again see a manager who is in charge for that many games.
Although he has his detractors, it cannot be denied that for many years he remained loyal to Saints though times when he had the chance to go to so called bigger clubs.
Lawrie McMenemy deserves this latest accolade, managing for a 1,000 games is no mean feat.