Probably the most underrated of the nominee's in this little series, but James Beattie ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to making the assessments.
For some reason James Beattie doesn't seem to be as fondly remembered by some Saints supporters as perhaps he should be, possibly because of the way he left the club when some felt his heart wasn't in it in his final half season at St Mary's, but that would be unfair.
So why should James be a contender for this prestigious award, after all he is up against some serious big hitters.
Firstly there is games played, in the league he played 161 times plus 41 as sub finding the net 68 times, this is a decent scoring ratio given for large chunks of that time Saints were a team in trouble and chances were not as frequent as they would be for a forward in a more successful team, Saints fans tend to forget that when he joined the club in July 1998 he was just 20 years old, he came from a Blackburn side where chances had been limited and he had started just 1 league game for them plus 3 as sub, initially he would be playing second fiddle to Egil Ostenstad, but with Ostenstad failing to hit his top form the burden was increasingly becoming Beattie's, what he did have though was a knack to hit goals at vital times, he would only score five in his first season at the Dell, but three of them were the difference between a point or not getting it, indeed those 3 goals were worth an extra 5 points, but none was more vital than his fifth goal of the season the opener against Wimbledon at what would be known as Delhurst Park.
However his second season didn't see the big leap forward that James might have hoped for, he struggled for game time and got even less once Glenn Hoddle had arrived and failed to score in any competition
Indeed with Kevin Davies back at the club it looked like 2000/01 might see him leave, especially as Uwe Rosler arrived to send him further down the pecking order, however as happens in football sometimes things can change very fast and by the end of October he was back in the team and hit 10 goals in 10 games to drag Saints out of relegation trouble, ironically the departure of Hoddle saw a downturn in Saints form, but James Beattie was by now the undisputed central striker for Saints forming a great partnership with first Marian Pahars and later Brett Ormerod.
2001/02 was the first season at St Mary's and got off to a bad start, however it got going and eventually the Beattie/Pahars partnership would yield 26 goals, 12 from Beattie in only 24(4) games.
But it would be 2002/03 that would see James establish himself not just as Saints most prolific striker, but being watched by the big boys, Saints of course famously reached the FA Cup Final and finished 8th in the Premier league and it was in no little way thanks to James 23 goals in the league from 35(3) appearances, form which also saw him earn 2 caps for England in 2003.
2003/04 was to be an anti climax for both James and Saints although he would be pleased with his tally of 14 league goals, including the third in a 3-0 win over Pompey to cap his brace in a 2-0 Carling Cup win a few weeks earlier making him public enemy number 1 in PO postcodes due to his hand to ear celebration in front of the away section.
But the summer of 2004 saw it clear that his head had been turned, Saints signed Peter Crouch and it looked certain that Beattie would be Everton Bound to replace Wayne Rooney, but the deal for the Shrek lookalike was done too late and there was no time to complete the move for Beattie meaning he had to stay till the transfer window, Saints were of course in disarray and many thought his heart wasn't in it, his 3 goals in 11 appearances was about par for his normal scoring ratio but in hindsight it could be said that Saints would have been better off with him gone so they could play Crouch who blossomed after Beattie's departure.
Some Saints supporters still harbour a grudge or two, im not one of them, undoubtably Beattie had a reputation for a touch of arrogance and being flash, but over the years he has grown up, secondly yes he wanted a big money move, but surely anything he owed Saints had been repaid several times over, he was valued at £1 million when he arrived at Saints, 6 1/2 years later we sold him for a reputed fee of 7 times that, in the meantime he hald played 161(41) times in the league for us scoring 68 goals, plus 14(1 in the FA Cup for 2 goals, 11(3) in the League Cup scoring 6 goals plus 2 appearances in Europe were he didn't score.
All in all we got our monies worth from James Beattie and we continued with that tradition set by Ted Bates where it was all about bringing players through cheaply and selling them at a big profit after getting the best out of them, this was certainly the case with Beattie and although it cannot be said that Peter Crouch was a big success at Saints due to our being relegated, the £5 million or so profit we made on him when added to the money made on Kevin Davies when Beattie originally arrived means that from a financial point of view James Beattie was very good for our bank account both when he arrived and when he left.
For varying reasons James Beattie might not figure highly in the coming vote but that would be a great injustice as with all things considered not least his form that took us to an FA Cup Final, he is possibly the most underrated of our greatest Centre Forwards.