Played For Saints & Man City

Southampton and Manchester City have since the 1960’s seen a few players play for both teams during their careers.

Mick Channon now known throughout the world as a top trainer of flat horses began his football career at Southampton. Mick made his debut for Southampton as a 17 year old in 1966, scoring in the match against Bristol City.

Within three years he had established himself as the club’s main goalscorer and was consistent in front of goal at a time when Southampton were one of the more unglamorous teams in English football’s First Division.

Mick was a member of the Saints FA Cup winning team of 1976 leaving Southampton a year late in 1977 when he left to go to Man City. he stayed before returning two years later after scoring 24 times for City in his 72 appearances.

From 1979 Mick stayed until 1982 and in his overall Saints career he played 510 games netting 185 times and is still the leading all time Saints goal scorer.

Others who played for both clubs include Eyal Berkovic, Uwe Rosler and Kevin Bond.

Berkovic first made his name in English football with a season-long loan spell with Southampton from Maccabi Haifa.

West Ham were impressed enough to part with £1.75m for his signature and he became a hero with the Hammers` fanbase thanks to his mazy dribbling, eye for a killer pass and taste for spectacular finishes.

These were skills City fans would learn to expect from Berkovic when he joined from Celtic in 2001.

Uwe Rosler was City`s top scorer in 1994/95, striking up a formidable partnership with Paul Walsh and finding the back of the net 22 times in all competitions. During his stay at City he played a total of 150 times.

He stayed with City until relegation to Division Two in 1998 and spent time at Kaiserslautern and Tennis Bourissia Berlin before returning to English football with Southampton in 2000.

It didn`t prove to be a successful move although Rosler does have the honour of being the last Southampton player to score at The Dell before the Saints` move to St Mary`s in in 2001 in a friendly match against Brighton.

Kevin Bond was a tough, uncompromising central defender who went on to amass 110 appearances for the Blues in a three-year spell before completing a big-money move to Southampton in 1984.

His spell in Hampshire proved to be just as successful as The Saints finished in fifth place in Division One in Bond`s first season. he played 140 times for Saints.




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