Six months ago it seemed that Teddy Sheringham was out the door. Manchester United were willing to pay £19m for the young PSV Eindhoven striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and Sheringham was the man to make way.
How quickly things have changed. Van Nistelrooy's knee collapsed, Sheringham signed a new one-year deal worth £1.2m, and now the talk is not just of a contract extension but even a place in England's starting line-up for the match against Italy on November 15th. "He's arguably in the greatest form of his career," Mark Lawrenson said on Match of the Day.
Glenn Hoddle had no doubts. "He still has a lot to offer his club and his country," the Southampton manager emphasised, and as if to confirm his opinion, the cameras later picked out Steve McClaren, the United and now England coach, making studious notes on the sidelines.
Admittedly, an easily cowed Southampton were never going to be the greatest test of a striker's ability, but Sheringham was able to demonstrate that the guile, skill, timing and positional sense needed to unlock international defences were well within his repertoire, as was the necessary understanding with England's main striker Andy Cole.
After Cole had softened up the visitors with a shot that squirmed through the hands of Paul Jones in an odd reprise of Massimo Taibi's howler in this fixture last season, Sheringham set his mind to the task in hand.
His first goal was typically intelligent, a Cantona-like chip over the goalkeeper from the left of the area. The second was a wafted shot into the top corner of the net and the third saw him arrive with perfect timing to whip the ball off Cole's feet and into Jones' bottom left-hand corner.
"That is my first hat-trick for Man United and hopefully I can get some more," he said. "Things are going well. We're top of the league, winning games and a couple of goals are going in as well, so things are fine."
Cole's header then rounded things off and the warm congratulations from his partner suggested that the icy relationship between them was at least thawing. Alex Ferguson added a decent touch of his own by substituting the pair in the 74th minute, allowing them both a standing ovation.
Manchester United: Barthez, P Neville, Irwin, Brown, G Neville (Wallwork 59), Beckham, Butt, Scholes, Sheringham (Yorke 75), Cole (Solskjaer 75), Giggs. Subs not used: Van Der Gouw, Silvestre. Goals: Cole 9, Sheringham 45, 51, 55, Cole 73.
Southampton: Jones, Dodd, Lundekvam, Oakley (Marsden 72), Draper, Davies, Pahars, Bridge, El Khalej (Benali 81), Tessem (Beattie 66), Kachloul. Subs not used: Moss, Ripley.
Referee: A D'Urso (Billericay).
