A bit like the extraction of his golden locks, Jannik Vestergaard’s progress at Southampton has been slow to say the least.<\/h2>\n

The jury is still out on the defender entering his third season on the south coast. Perhaps in exact alignment of his own team’s fortunes, it’s been rough sailing.<\/p>\n

The life of a footballer is fraught with peaks and troughs. The immediacy in which the modern world lives means fluctuating opinions and ways of thinking are often erratic, with tendencies to swing back and forth. Given the see-sawing of emotions, it’s a rarity for a footballer to feel truly accepted by a fanbase.<\/p>\n

Win and you are the greatest living organism on the planet. Lose? Well, it’s often not worth thinking about; just take refuge and try to deflect the storm of ridicule that’s bound to come your way.<\/p>\n

At first, Vestergaard arrived as the brand spanking new \u00a318 million-pound addition, seen as the heir to Virgil Van Dijk and his defensive throne. He was set to simply follow the long, illustrious line of Southampton defenders that had previously wielded their considerable skillset upon the St Mary’s turf.<\/p>\n

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Jose Fonte, Toby Alderweireld, Van Dijk. Southampton felt they’d acquired their next rough diamond who would undergo an eventual gleaming. The quirky double entendre headline that would inevitably see the new acquisition depicted as Southampton’s ‘Great Dane’ was surely not too far away.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But three years on, Jannik Vestergaard has had to put up with more ravaging, negative headlines than any of his aforementioned peers. Castigated, regularly scapegoated and jarred with the incessant reminder you may not be good enough, it would be understandable if the Dane felt his time at Southampton feels a lot longer than just the three years.<\/p>\n

Speaking recently, Vestergaard confessed as much: \u201cI must not hide the fact that there have been periods when it seemed that I should not continue.”<\/p>\n

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