A month off his 25th birthday back in August, Oriol Romeu would have known now was the time he really needed to make the step up from being a perennial bit-part player. Cast off by Barcelona and jettisoned by Chelsea, the Spanish midfielder has failed to break the 30-game barrier in any season of his career so far.
Last year at Southampton saw progress but the current campaign has been the real breakthrough: 26 appearances, all but one of them starts, and a position - at last - as one of the first names on the team sheet.