Terry Paine, master of the lost art of crossing the ball, has admitted: "If I'd played today, I would be a multi millionare!"

The Saints legend, who scored 160 goals for the club and created three times as many as that for the likes of Ron Davies and Mick Channon, bemoans the lack of good crossers in the modern game.

"The best one, David Beckham, has gone off to Real Madrid and Manchester United are poorer for it," said Paine.

"Good crossing has become a bit of lost art.

"It's a different game now to my day. Modern tactics of using wing- backs make it more difficult for wide players to push up and get in good centres.

"That's a shame because if you have a player who can get to the byline and get the ball in, it's meat and drink to a striker."

Paine sat, watched and suffered the breakdown of Saints' play in the last third of the field at Everton last weekend.

He observed: "Saints have a bad record at Everton, something like two wins in 20-odd games. and you just thought this was a great opportunity to put one over on them.

"Quite honestly Everton looked an ordinary side who were there for the taking, although on reflection you can't knock getting a draw at a place like Goodison Park.

"Saints have got to walk before they can run in the Premiership and Gordon Strachan has got the defensive side of things right.

"I'm sure with goalscorers like James Beattie and Kevin Phillips in the camp, Gordon will be determined to get the best out of them.

"It will be something he will be working at very hard.

"Right now Saints may be lacking a player of real invention in the middle of the park but, to be frank, there aren't too many players like that around.

"You just have to look at Liverpool. With their resources they don't seem to be able to get the best out of Michael Owen and Manchester United now miss Beckham's great service in from the flanks.

"Beckham has the same strengths as I had. He can put in a good cross, but unlike Beckham I could go past my full back and get to the byline.

"I would like to see the Saints winger Fernandes doing that more often. He's a good player who carries the ball well.

"But he has an unfortunate habit of checking back on to the other foot before he delivers a centre. The element of surprise and the impact of the cross would be much greater if he could occasionally get to the byline."

South Africa-based Paine believes the use of wing-backs has been detrimental to the art of wing play.

"Apart from making it more difficult for attacking players to go wide, it's often wing backs who get themselves into positions to cross - and they are the wrong people for the job because they are basically defenders," he said.

"And their crosses are not that hot usually."

The man who played over 700 games for Saints summed up: "The present Southampton side are what they are.

"Their strength is closing down and making it more difficult for the opposition.

"But to go forward from where they are, they need to be creating more and scoring more.

"Because without goals you are inevitably putting increasing pressure on your defence."