Southampton's Ward-Prowse is a club hero and could even be underrated

James Ward-Prowse's move to West Ham was confirmed on Monday morning, drawing an end to his 20-year stint at the club.

Across the last four Premier League seasons, captain Ward-Prowse has played more minutes than any other Saints player.

His total of 33 goals in that period is bettered only by Danny Ings and nobody comes close to his 51 direct goal contributions when assists are added.

While some may say Ward-Prowse plays the game too horizontally, the captain’s 189 progressive passes remarkably in three consecutive seasons lead the way comfortably.

READ MORE: Will Russell Martin's Southampton be enjoyable for all supporters? 

It was not just due to the volume of minutes played either – per 90 he tops it even going back a fourth season when Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg was playmaker-in-chief.

Ward-Prowse is only good from set pieces? His passes from open play led to more shots than any other Saints player in the last two full seasons (62 and 71).

Ward-Prowse made more tackles (65) than any Saints player in the Premier League last season – he ranked fifth last season, third the year before and first again prior.

He made the most interceptions (55) of any Saints player last season and has only once been outside the top two in the last four campaigns.

Ward-Prowse has only been credited with two mistakes on the ball leading directly to shots from the opponent in four seasons – although that is a much more subjective metric.

But by whatever numbers you choose to use, Ward-Prowse was Southampton’s most influential player – and if you ask anyone outside SO, their best player.

He touched the ball more than any other Saints player in both the midfield third and the attacking third.

Ward-Prowse may not be completely irreplaceable – not even cult hero Sergio Aguero at Manchester City was – but he will be sorely missed.

Koeman: "You’ll never finish the best touch of a free-kick. You have to keep learning, keep practising. That’s my message to him: keep working on it."

Ward-Prowse made 410 appearances during his 20 years at the St Mary’s side – 343 of those have come in the Premier League, as have 49 of his goals.

He became an England international in that time, earning 11 caps under manager Gareth Southgate – despite definitive snubbings for two major tournaments.

Ward-Prowse made nine appearances in the Europa League, assisting twice in failed 2015-16 qualifying and playing 90 minutes in the win at Inter Milan’s San Siro the next season.

His first tastes in Europe came under current Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman, who spoke exclusively to the Daily Echo about the England man.

“I worked with him at Southampton and he was one of the players who liked to learn from people and liked to learn from managers,” the Barcelona legend said.

“He was serious, he was hard-working with everything. He’s a great player and it’s great to have a guy like him as a manager.

“I didn’t know at the beginning when I came to Southampton as a manager he was the player who had a fantastic kick of the ball.

“I knew about him, I knew he had a really good shot, really good passing possibilities, at the time he was open-minded – he told me that he had been watching my free kicks when I was a player.”

In professional and media engagements Ward-Prowse is polished and proper, often called upon by the communications team to represent the club in difficult moments.

But what he will be remembered and revered for on the south coast is a dead-ball ability that has drawn him comparisons to the likes of Lionel Messi and Roberto Carlos.

More famously, it is David Beckham’s Premier League record he has sought to chase down – falling one short at 17 in Saints colours.  

Koeman himself is one of the greatest takers the game has seen – totalling 60 of his 253 goals, including a 1992 final strike as Barcelona won their first European Cup.

“It’s not a surprise he is one of the best. It’s not about just having a good touch of the ball, it’s about the time you spend learning and practising when it comes to free kicks,” Koeman said.

“And he’s a person who’s always working and always learning to make himself better. And in the case of free-kicks, he was always putting work in after training to have the best free-kick.

“The touch of the ball is one thing but the second is when it doesn’t come easily, you have to train it. And he is someone who is always doing more to get the best of himself,” his former boss added.

“I had a tip that in training sessions after our normal training sessions when we were practising free-kicks, I told him when we had a wall with all the faces of the wall on it - I told him - on the left side of the 18-yard box, take the third man in the wall as the line that you have to place the free-kick.

“Take the third man in the wall, not the second. If you take the second then it will go wide of goal. But take the head of the third man in the wall and that’s the line that normally the goalkeeper can’t reach. That was my experience and he was open-minded to learn everything and every detail.”

Shooting from that left side of the box has now become a trademark of Ward-Prowse’s – who better to learn from than Koeman himself.

Le Tissier: "To have a stalwart there for over a decade and playing that role, devoting himself to the club, that goes a long way in the fans’ minds."

Ward-Prowse is Southampton’s best player since Matt Le Tissier, the Premier League ‘Hundred Club’ attacker who is much the antonym of the current skipper.

Le Tissier, never relegated with his boyhood side, did not need to move to impact the game and you would not find him top of many statistics – except the one that really mattered.

While Ward-Prowse does not possess the pure technical brilliance of Le Tissier, his enduring excellence had seen the Mr Southampton baton passed on for his time here at least.

The Guernsey-born wizard made it to 462 appearances for Saints, scoring 209 goals – including a destined late winner versus Arsenal in the final game at The Dell.

“I’ve been very impressed with James in the last few years. I saw a massive change in him once Ralph (Hasenhuttl) took over,” Le Tissier told the Daily Echo.

“Before then he was a little bit in and out. It felt like some of the managers didn’t properly trust him, Ralph was the first one who put trust in him fully and he got the results of that with the performances James has put in.

“It’s not too often I’m able to admit somebody was better than me at something but his free-kicks have taken it to a whole new level!”

Le Tissier added: “It’s just amazing, the technique he has got to get it up and over a wall and to dip so quickly is brilliant. It’s not something that I really had the ability to do.

“I did a piece with him for Soccer Saturday a few years ago and saw it close up. It’s a brilliant technique and one that I struggled with.”

While Ward-Prowse has developed a fearsome reputation when standing over the dead ball – one that left England number one Jordan Pickford trembling at Goodison Park this year – Le Tissier had a more unorthodox method.

Former Saint Alan Shearer claimed Le Tissier’s cheeky flick and volley versus Wimbledon in 1994 was the best free-kick of the Premier League era, but Le Tissier does not expect Ward-Prowse to try and recreate it.

“I was talking to somebody about that just a couple of days ago on the golf course, I was trying to explain to them,” he said.

“The reason why they don’t is because it’s very easy to look very stupid if you get it wrong.

“Even against Wimbledon I didn’t flick the ball as high as I intended to, I didn’t change my feet quick enough so it is quite a tricky technique.”

But, reminiscent of his own playing days, Le Tissier will miss the tangible aura of certainty when the current captain strides to strike.

“It’s the same feeling I get with a Ward-Prowse free-kick in a certain position, there’s one position that he scores from every time,” Le Tissier said. "When I’m watching and we get a free-kick in that position, I immediately get excited.

Dodd: "It does p**s me off a little bit actually because people do go, ‘he’s just a dead ball specialist’. He offers a lot more than that."

When asked about Bobby Stokes in 2017, a smile stretched its way across Ward-Prowse's face. The FA Cup final scorer also came from down the M27.

“Regardless of where you’re from, you put the Southampton shirt on and you want to do your best," he told the Daily Echo then.

It is not an easy task to grow up a Pompey season ticket holder and yet endear yourself to the red and white of Hampshire. 

But by 22 years of age, Ward-Prowse was already the longest-serving member of the Saints senior squad. 

Ward-Prowse trained for both Saints and Portsmouth almost every night of the week when he was a schoolboy, before both clubs realised and he was forced to pick one.

His choice was obvious due to the incredible reputation of Southampton, his father, John said. Ward-Prowse did go on to train with Havant & Waterlooville’s men aged 14.

He worked under club legend Jason Dodd in the academy and went on to break his Premier League appearance record (329).

"He was a pleasure from 15 years old and he still is now," Dodd told the Daily Echo. "If anyone is to break any records at the football club, it should be James.

"He’s worked at it since he was 12, we all see the benefits of a matchday just like when I played with Le Tiss.

"Le Tiss scored the hundred-odd wonder goals but we saw it every day in training. Matt didn’t just do that on the day. To us, it was nothing new. It was normal.

"And I know James, he’s got areas he wants to get better at as well. He won’t be satisfied with breaking David Beckham’s record, he’ll only be satisfied extending it."

With Ward-Prowse's exit now confirmed it remains to be seen who will step up and claim the 'Mr Southampton' title. That is and should always be 'The Southampton Way'.

It would remain forever fitting that his final Premier League appearance ended with the club's youngest-ever Premier League debutant - Sam Amo-Ameyaw, 16 - his replacement.