Saturday 17 January 2015 22:31, UK
We take a closer look at Southampton's two-goal Saturday Night Football hero Eljero Elia - and find a forward desperate to seize his Premier League chance...
Every club is looking for an impact signing in January – and Southampton have found one in Eljero Elia.
The Dutch winger’s loan deal from Werder Bremen went through in the first minute of this month’s transfer window and the 27-year-old has promptly made his mark in the Premier League, with a match-winning brace at Newcastle, following an impressive hour-long debut at Old Trafford.
His opener on Saturday demonstrated his pace, as he darted onto James Ward-Prowse’s pass to fire in across Tim Krul. His second may have gone in with a fortunate deflection, but, as Southampton great Matt Le Tissier pointed out afterwards, his movement was first class.
“He got a little bit lucky with the deflection but he was in the right position again, making that run, gambling on the second ball, and he got his rewards,” Le Tissier told Saturday Night Football.
“I’m not quite sure what Southampton are doing that’s so brilliant but every signing this season has played an integral part.”
Southampton have reached an agreement with the Bundesliga side to borrow Elia until the end of the season, with a view to signing him permanently in the summer – and it seems Saints boss Ronald Koeman is a fan.
“He scored a great goal and he’s a good boy,” the Dutchman said after the victory at St James’ Park. “He needs confidence from the coach and we need that kind of player. I’m happy to have Elia in the team.”
Elia’s off-field antics – he has a history of social media spats and crashed a $300,000 car in London – has led to him mischievously being compared to Mario Balotelli in some quarters of the media.
However, when it comes to exploits on the field, in just 145 minutes of Premier League football, Elia already has two more goals than the Italian striker has managed in 760.
And it seems that, in Koeman, Elia has a manager willing to give a player who appeared in the 2010 World Cup final but has since fallen out of favour in Bremen, another shot.
“I know the player, I know the family of the player, I know the agent of the player,” Koeman said when the loan deal was completed. “He’s a serious boy and he wants the chance to play football. He has the chance to play football at Southampton.
“It’s a good step, a big step for him. He’s still not 100 per cent because he didn’t play the last few months. He has to take his chance. For the rest, that is separate from football and I’m not interested.”
Speaking after his double on Tyneside, Elia expressed his gratitude to his countryman on Sky Sports.
“I want to thank Koeman for giving me the chance to play for Southampton. He was the only one that believed in me,” he said.
“The feeling for the first goal was like a dream come true and for the second one I was so happy.”
If Elia continues to perform to the level he’s shown in his first two games, he’ll have plenty of Southampton fans smiling too.
Follow all the January transfer window news with Sky Sports
