The 2010/11 season was one full of promise for a 15-year-old midfielder named James Ward-Prowse - and a 16-year-old forward named Dylan Tombides.
Ward-Prowse was the latest up-and-coming star of the Southampton youth system, while Tombides was an outstanding prospect in West Ham United’s Academy of Football.
Both clubs had developed superb and justified reputations for their development of young players and, in 2010/11, their Under-18 sides were vying for the Premier Academy League title.
The two games between the Hammers and Saints were thrilling affairs, producing 12 goals in total - including one each for Ward-Prowse and Tombides - but ultimately it was Ward-Prowse’s side who won both, 3-2 at Staplewood, then 4-3 at Little Heath.
The two teams were packed with talent, with Ward-Prowse playing alongside fellow future England international Calum Chambers, while Tombides was joined by future first-team players Dan Potts, Robert Hall and Sebastian Lletget, who has won 33 caps for the United States.
Ward-Prowse continued to progress quickly, making his senior debut for Southampton in October 2011, aged 16 years and eleven months.
Tragically, earlier the same year Tombides had been diagnosed with testicular cancer while playing for Australia at the FIFA U17 World Cup. Less than three years later, after making an emotional first-team appearance against Wigan Athletic in September 2012, he passed away, aged just 20, on 18 April 2014.
Eleven years on, as he prepares to take on his old club in the Premier League at London Stadium on Saturday, Ward-Prowse can clearly remember playing against the Hammers’ young Socceroo.
Speaking to whufc.com, the now 30-year-old also revealed how he and his fellow aspiring Saints were inspired by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who had made his own first-team debut for Southampton at 16, becoming the club’s second youngest player, and become a regular at the age of 17. ‘The Ox’ would go on to play for Arsenal, Liverpool and England and is now with Turkish club Beşiktaş.
Such was the schoolboy Ward-Prowse’s desire to follow in Oxlade-Chamberlain’s footsteps, he ensured he caught the same train as him on the way to Southampton’s Staplewood training ground each and every morning…
Prowsey, we host Southampton on Saturday and, as the club where you started your career and as their all-time record Premier League appearance maker, it’ll always be a special fixture for you?
“Yeah, special in many ways. It will obviously bring back a lot of fond memories I've got of the place. It's a club that gave me the opportunity as a kid to achieve a dream and give me that chance to do that, so it's a club and a place I'll always be very, very grateful for.”
The year you broke into the Southampton first team, 2011/12, we were promoted from the Championship together, and were then rivals in the Premier League in your first season in the team in 2012/13, so it’s a rivalry you know from the other side. Both clubs have historically given youth a chance, regardless of their position, which is fantastic?
“It’s important for Premier League clubs to have Academies and fans love to see those players come through. Clubs spend a lot of time and money investing in the young players to come through and I think, as a fan, you want to see the young players from your own club come through, so I think it's important that that remains. I think both clubs have continued to do that over the years, both have had a good history with it and it's something they'll look to try and continue.”
Every season, it seems that West Ham and Southampton are challenging at the top of the U18 leagues, and that was the case when you were coming through in 2010/11?
“I remember West Ham had a prolific front line with Blair Turgott, Matthias Fanimo and Dylan Tombides, and Rob Hall and Elliot Lee were also there. I always remember playing up against West Ham because it was always a tough game, very physical.
“I scored an absolute belter against them in the Under-18s actually one year, at Little Heath. I remember our coach was really, really buzzing because West Ham had given us a little bit, so we decided to give a little bit back!
“It was always a good rivalry that game. West Ham was always a nice game to play in. We had a good group too, with Luke Shaw (Manchester United and England), Calum Chambers (Arsenal, Cardiff City and England), Harrison Reed (Fulham), Sam McQueen (former Southampton and Middlesbrough) - who has sadly had to retire - and Jordan Turnbull (Coventry City, Northampton Town, Salford City and Tranmere Rovers), who all went on to play senior football, so they were two really strong youth teams.
“We had a real good crop, but Southampton was just a great place to do it.”
What was it that made Southampton such a good place to develop young players?
“They just gave you confidence. There was always a young player in the first team from the Academy, so you always had an example of, ‘oh, he's doing it’.
“For me, it was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He was the one I was getting the train in with into training, so I could see and I could hear from him. There were a few of us that would get on the train through, so he would be the example to us. He'd be playing in League One at the time, helping the first team get to things, so he'd have played for Southampton on the Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning he’d be on the train and we'd hear from him what it was like and it almost gave us a bit of inspiration.”
So, train rides with the Ox drove you to become the player you are today. Where did you all get on?
“Yeah, there would have been me, Harrison Reed, Calum Chambers and a few others.
“Harrison and Calum would get on at Petersfield, then I’d get on at Cosham, then it would pick up Lloyd Isgrove and Alex at Fareham, and then a lad called Fraser Colmer who I was really close with and a few other lads would get on.
“It was kind of ‘he’s in the first team and we all want to be him’, so we were all around him, which was good.”
Did you all make sure you got the same train as the Ox each morning, then?
“Yeah! It was cool. He was in the first team and we all wanted to be there too. It was just cool to be around someone who was an example and we all wanted to be the next one, and luckily enough three or four of us went on to do it.”
You still have an interest in Southampton, naturally, so do you expect them to delve into their Academy again and players like 19-year-old Tyler Dibling as they seek to bounce back next season?
“Tyler has got a lot of promise. He’s still incredibly young and still got a lot of football to play, but I think it just shows that no matter what state the club is in, whether it's high up in the league or low in the division, it's still trying to promote the young players and will try and give them those opportunities. I think no matter how well or difficult the club is doing, it keeps that DNA and it keeps that kind of ‘Southampton Way’, which they used to call it.
“Like I said, they've always had a young player in the squad to some degree and I'm sure the younger players now, especially, will be looking at it thinking next season is a good opportunity to be involved and hopefully play a part in them coming back up.”
While it’s totally understandable that you want Southampton to come back up next season, there will be no sentiment on Saturday, will there, especially given our own position in the Premier League table?
“It's not where we want to be. It doesn't feel like we're in that position, but we are. I've been in that position (17th) before, unfortunately, and you can sometimes feel that ‘we're not at a level’ and it feels around the place that we're low, whereas now I feel like the league's not a true reflection of where we are as a team. I feel as though the results haven't been what we wanted, but the performances have been strong and we're really competitive in all the games, and it could have gone either way in all of them. So I think that's a positive and it's just important that we get another win under our belts on Saturday.
“Since I've come back, thinking of the games I've played, all of them have been tight, and it's been by a goal or two or we’ve conceded a late equaliser, things like that. We've been really competitive in the games and the Premier League's so competitive. It's about those fine margins and those little bits that make the difference and unfortunately, it's just fallen the other side a few times.
“Of course, we can be better, but I think we've improved a lot.”
