Wright-Phillips sold to Southampton

And there was none. A year after the departure of brother Shaun to Chelsea, Bradley Wright-Phillips completed a surprise move to Championship side Southampton today for an undisclosed fee, but the deal is believed to include a substantial sell on clause.

As I've mused before on this site, I wasn't totally convinced that he would ever make the grade at the club, with the limited opportunities he has had proving largely inconclusive in that respect.

Despite the arrival of Dickov in the off-season in addition to Samaras in January, Wright-Phillips still had time on his side to make an impact though and I felt a good short term move would have been for him to spend the season on loan at a Championship side to get himvaluable experience.

However, Pearce obviously feels that Wright-Phillips has perhaps progressed as far as he can and that he has a good complement of strikers at the club. Added to this is the emergence of Daniel Sturridge, who now looks set to get a few opportunities during the coming season.

A move that came as a little bit of a surprise then, but one I don't think will come back to haunt Stuart Pearce in years to come.