Alan Shearer: "The Saints were the first club I joined, signing their schoolboy forms at the age of 14. It was tough leaving family and friends behind, especially moving to Southampton because you couldn't exactly jump on the motorway and come back home whenever you felt like it.
"But I was determined to become a professional footballer so I decided that when Southampton came calling, I would move down. Another reason for joining the Saints was that they were renowned for bringing kids into the first team.
"It all went really well after that, which finally resulted in manager Chris Nichol giving me my first-team debut. I continued putting in good performances, before Blackburn came knocking. It was a hard decision to leave the south coast after everything Southampton had done for me, but I felt it was the right decision at the time.
"Looking ahead to Saturday, I think the current Southampton team will think they've got nothing to lose. It's up to us to approach the game in the right way, or else we'll come unstuck."