Joe Aribo's search for the Rangers form that won him a move to the Premier League has taken another turbulent bump this week after a difficult week at Southampton.
It was only last May that the Nigerian international was scoring in a Europa League Final as Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side came painfully close to lifting a European trophy against Eintracht Frankfurt. Soon after he was on the road to the south of England, but he found himself playing in a 2-1 U23s defeat to Leeds last week with senior minutes limited.
Then just a cameo role was presented by new manager Ruben Selles in an FA Cup fifth round tie with League Two minnows Grimsby Town, where he was shoehorned into a striker as Southampton lost 2-1 in disastrous fashion. Aribo has played 37 first-team league minutes since January 4, not involved at all in either of their last two squads. They are bottom of the division after sacking Ralph Ralph Hasenhuttl and Nathan Jones from the hotseat.
The 26-year-old has two goals without an assist in 26 matches and Selles says he tried to find the former Rangers playmaker a striker role to add to his already diverse positions arsenal, with no further St Mary's guarantees provided. He said: "We knew that in the game plan we would need striker. We put Joe Aribo on and Theo Walcott as strikers and then we needed a third one and we had Dom Ballard. That was the game plan in case we needed it.
"I'm disappointed with the whole team. Because at the end of the day, we are a team, I don't think it's about one player or 10 players, I think they have been working well.
"I told you before that when the moment came to perform, we were not there and then when as soon as something happens in the game, we are not robust enough. It doesn't matter of who is playing, we're not robust enough to take it and then come back and we need to avoid that.
"I will not change because I think the players work well and they deserve to do it. But the disappointment is big from all of us and for all of us."
