Southampton had been hoping to get a player on loan from Liverpool ever since the season ended, yet it wasn’t Adam Hammill they were thinking of.

Back in March, Danny Guthrie came in initially for a month’s loan as the team struggled to contain injuries and missing players. His role appeared clear: play a couple of games until the more experienced players come in at which point he would return to the sidelines before going back to Liverpool.

Only things didn’t proceed according to that plan. So good was Guthrie that he became a fixture in the Southampton team that suddenly found form and results to make it to the play-offs.

So it was him that Southampton initially tried to sign, enquiring whether Liverpool were willing to let him join on a season long loan deal. Unfortunately for them, Bolton had also noticed the midfielder’s displays and the possibility of Premiership football was more alluring.

But Burley wasn’t to be dissuaded and eventually turned his attention to another promising midfielder in the form of Hammill.

And, whilst the club’s fans won’t know too much about him at the moment, they need not be disappointed. For Hammill is a genuinely exciting player who can dribble past players and make things happen for the side.

Like Guthrie he spent the second half of last season out on loan – to Dunfermline in Scotland – and he too enjoyed the experience. Two years ago, as one of the stars who helped Liverpool to the youth cup final. At the time he was considered as a talented player but also one who had attitude problems. He didn’t take to substitutions well and tended to hog the ball too much.

Six months in Scotland seems to have cured him of most of most of those bad habits. He seems to have matured and can share the ball much better: he has much more respect for his team mates and is a better team player.

That loan deal also proved that he could score goals - including a fantastic effort against Celtic – as well as create them. During the run to the cup final he won a number of crucial penalties that helped get them through. His creativity and eagerness to run with the ball helped him shine despite playing in a side stuck at the bottom of the division and which was ultimately relegated.

So impressive was he in Scotland that both Celtic and Rangers seemed to be interested in taking him for a season long loan. Both teams would have given him a taste of European football but in the long run the Championship will probably guarantee him a better degree of competition on a weekly basis.

If he is allowed to play and express himself, he’ll end up the season as one of the division’s better young players.