A year ago Saints supporters at Leicester City were jumping in celebration when new signing Sekou Mara ran on to a through all and calmly slotted it home to give Southampton the lead, only he didn’t, VAR ruled it marginally offside and what looked like a dream start to his time at St Mary’s soon turned into a tough old season for the striker.
A year on and Sekou Mara still has plenty of doubters in the Southampton supporter base, but could Leicester City finally be a breakthrough moment for Mara after his debut goal for the France U21 side this week.
Mara came off the bench for France against Slovenia U21’s and in the 88th minutes slid the ball home for his debut goal at that level and it should perhaps make Saints fans think that he can be a force to be reckoned with at Championship level, even if he didn’t quite impress in the Premier League.
He is not ready yet for a place in the starting line up, but coming off the bench he could well impress if he is judged on what he does going forward and not weighed down by criticism from last season.
This weekend Leicester are the opponents again, this time at St Mary’s and hopefully Saints can repeat last season’s double against Leicester after going on to with the game away from home 2-1 and following it up with a victory at St Mary’s.
There is no doubt Saints have firepower, Adam Armstrong & Che Adams are both proven at this level and although Nathan Tella has gone, there is Ross Stewart who will be hopefully approaching fitness by the end of the month not to mention Charly Alcaraz and Sulemana and this is an attacking environment that Sekou Mara might just flourish in, perhaps not as a started, but in cameo roles from the bench as he did for the French this week.