IT’s always good to catch up with football people I’ve worked with over the years.

I like to know how they’re getting on now, what happened when they hung their boots up and where have they moved to.

This week, for instance, I enjoyed an hour or more with David Armstrong who I signed from Middlesbrough for what was then a record fee of £600,000.

I knew what I was doing. He had never missed a game for ‘Boro in eight seasons through injury or being dropped - and left-sided midfielders were hard to find in those days.

He was rarely injured, playing 359 games in nine seasons for Middlesbrough and 222 in six seasons for us, as well as winning three England caps. He also scored goals - 59 for both clubs including 15 in his first season - and was the last piece in the jigsaw that I was looking for.

I met up with Dave at the Potters Heron in Romsey, which is best known as the venue chosen for the unveiling of his former teammate Kevin Keegan as a Southampton player after I signed him from Hamburg in 1980

Kevin is back in Southampton today meeting hundreds of fans as he signs copies of My Life in Football, his recently-published autobiography.

Supporters of an age I am sure will remember because I am reminded very often of the day he signed for Saints.

The owner of the Potters Heron thanked me for making it famous because that is where I was able to gather all the football press, local and national.

Kevin has apparently said it was the biggest surprise ever. He had flown in from Hamburg to Southampton before making the journey to Romsey.

No-one knew until he actually walked through the door, to a huge gasp from the gathered media, followed by a round of applause.

The book tells how I had been working at getting him to join us for months before that.

He tells the tale of how I contacted him because I’d heard the company that sold a particular electric light fitting I wanted was in Hamburg and that we needed it for our new house.

He swallowed that at the beginning and after two or three phone calls I started to persuade him to join me and two of his greatest friends, Mick Channon and Alan Ball, at The Dell.

He was fantastic when he was with us.

We fell out over a couple of things and I don’t necessarily agree with one he has mentioned in the book.

But as he points out, we have carried on the friendship, not just with each other but our wives and families.

There is total respect and he is a legend not only here and Germany but of course in Liverpool and Newcastle.

He was such a strong character and ambitious for Southampton to win the league as he had done at previous clubs.

Bearing in mind he was also European Football of the Year twice and at that time we were not able to get any higher than sixth position.

He moved on to Newcastle where he had an illustrious career both playing and later managing.

I was not surprised 1,500 people turned up at a book signing he did there this week.

Only a year or so after he left us we got to our highest-ever position - second place. We finished only three points behind his old club Liverpool.

It’s a pity he hadn’t stayed on as we might have got the extra win with him in the side.

Good luck to him, I’m sure the book will be a best seller.

It’s a pity Mark Hughes does not have the likes of Channon, Bally, Keegan and Armstrong at present. They were certainly value for money and the stuff managers and supporters dream of.

Lawrie McMenemy and Kevin Keegan