Agustin Delgado
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Wednesday, 10, May 2006 12:28
Age: 31
Position: Forward
Country: Ecuador
Caps: 67
Goals: 29
Club: Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito
Previous clubs: El Nacional, Bacelona de Guayaquil, Necaxa, Southampton, Aucas
Estimated 'Chelsea-target' value: £1 million.
Gordon Strachan's tenure at Southampton was characterised by an undeniable prudence, pragmatism which saw the club become established in the middle echelons of the Premiership while helping itself to a rare FA Cup final appearance against Arsenal. So his decision to spend the club's second highest ever transfer fee on a rangy, enigmatic Ecuadorian striker who clocked up only 15 appearances for the club in almost three years can most kindly be described as an aberration - and Agustin Delgado's imminent leading of his nation's line at Germany 2006 will perhaps only serve to pose more questions than it answers.
The six foot two Delgado's nine goals in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers propelled his country to its first appearance on the biggest stage of all and alerted managers from far beyond his Mexican club, Necaxa. Here was a leggy, strong, British-style attacker with a giant leap and an unerring calmness in front of goal which belied a player of his size, and one whose raw edges Strachan believed could be smoothed out to help his team move to another level. In November 2001, he got his man.
The denouement was somewhat tragi-comic for Saints fans, who saw their £3.25 million signing divide his time between the treatment table - lingering knee and back problems did little to help his cause - and his manager's bad books, with rumours constantly surfacing of attitude problems and the player's brother even citing supporters' lack of goodwill on his 28th birthday as a reason for his unsettled and seemingly unwilling frame of mind.
Delgado's talent was frustratingly obvious to Strachan - who saw him score two goals in his time at the club, including a winner against Arsenal - but was only fitfully translated in front of fans at the 2002 World Cup, when Ecuador began their campaign, perhaps understandably, with painful timidity and only shed their inhibitions in a meaningless victory over Croatia. He did open the scoring early on in his side's defeat to Mexico, but his fitness was undoubtedly a factor in a generally sluggish set of personal performances and this, coupled with a late appearance for pre-season training at St Mary's, was to set the tone for his next year and a half.
His stint in English football officially ended with the termination of his contract, 12 months prematurely, in June 2004 - although in practice he had been loaned out to Aucas, from his home country, three months previously. In a feat which perhaps rendered Strachan apoplectic he had managed to fire his temporary club to the local championship with six goals in that time before signing with them for a longer spell and then, after another Mexican stint, winding up at Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito via the local Barcelona club.
The more sedate pace of the Central and South American leagues seems to have served Delgado well despite news of the occasional further disciplinary indiscretion. He jointly top-scored for his country as they qualified for a second successive World Cup and should line up alongside Carlos Tenorio in a side which feels it has something to prove after the disappointment of 2002. The legs may be a little heavier than the expensive limbs which first turned up at St Mary's, and the spring a little less sharp - but the feeling persists that Delgado will not complete his planned international retirement without giving Southampton's fans, now fully immersed in the bleak realities of Championship football, one or two tantalising glimpses of what might have been.
Nick Ames.