MY INVOLVEMENT in football over the years has allowed me to see a number of exciting talents breaking into the world scene.

I was reminded very much of the days of Paul Gascoigne coming through when I saw all of the coverage Jude Bellingham was getting.

His arrival in the game at such a young age is the equivalent really of how Gazza caught the eye as a teenager.

It looks like he could have a similar sort of career, and all the publicity he has had recently means all eyes are on him.

What remains to be seen is not so much about his ability but how he handles all that extra pressure. So far, so good.

Real Madrid has always been a name that is synonymous with giants in the football world, and that was long before English players were joining their league.

Most people can tell you who Real Madrid’s star players are because they’ve got publicity all over the world.

I wonder how their supporters feel when they come out not with 11 Spanish players but with a cross-section of all around the world, but it has been the case for a long time.

Gareth Bale caught our attention earlier than most clubs, coming through the system I set up here at Saints and we all know how successful he went on to be.

He is such a nice lad and I seem to remember it was Rod Ruddick, someone I appointed as a scout in that area, who had mentioned this youngster first.

I obviously followed his career since then and full marks. He always got quite embarrassed when supporters wanted his autograph out in the car park outside the ground!

He took it all in his stride and reached his peak at Real Madrid – and whilst I have never met Jude Bellingham, it would appear he has an equal head on his shoulders.

Let’s see if his career takes him as high as Gareth’s did, and if it does, England could be very fortunate indeed.

I have also written about Sir Jim Ratcliffe before, having been invited to open one of his southern INEOS branches some time ago.

I realised very quickly how passionate he was about football. At the time, things weren’t too settled here at the club and I asked him, why don’t you buy Southampton?

I was trying to twist his arm because I could see how much he loved football. It was nearly at a stage where he could become part of the club.

I took him to a game but the trouble was he was a really passionate Man United supporter, and that is probably one of the reasons why it couldn’t happen.

To see him there at Old Trafford now with 25 per cent of the shares – reportedly worth £1.4billion – in the game and at the club he loves, it is exactly where he would want to be.

In a way, I’m really pleased for him to be at Old Trafford and with a big part of the club. Unfortunately, now, we won’t see them at Saints until we get promoted again!

Hopefully, the manager, Russell Martin, and his staff have cashed in on the international break because I can imagine the frustration of losing half of his squad to their national duty.

They had the time to work on the training pitch but didn’t necessarily have the players, despite getting relegated, with a large number of them still playing for their countries.

I will be checking the scores again at Hull City. Remembering back to my time at Grimsby, winning the league and getting promoted, Hull were considered our local rivals.

Grimsby was always a happy reminder to me and my family that people can be very special, always friendly and lovely – as I have mentioned before.

The success there eventually got me down here! I would have been interested to see the atmosphere when Grimsby and Hull got in the same league together.

It would be a bit like Saints and Portsmouth facing each other, so hopefully Russell Martin’s men can do us all a favour and win today.