Southampton will always regret the premature sale of creative monster once linked to Manchester United | OneFootball

Dusan Tadic spent four years at Southampton between 2014 and 2018, but Saints fans may feel as though he left too soon.

Dusan Tadic spent four years at Southampton between 2014 and 2018, racking up over 130 appearances for the Saints in the Premier League. However, Saints fans may feel he left far too soon, having thrived on the continental stage for both Ajax and Fenerbahçe upon his departure.

Having spent time in the academy of his hometown club of AIK Backa Topola in his native Serbia, Tadic would move to fellow Serbian outfit Vojvodina in 2002, where he would sign his first professional contract and made his professional debut in 2006 as an 18-year-old.

The 2007/08 season would be his breakthrough year, as he played 28 times in the Serbian top flight, scoring seven goals and providing three assists, while also representing Vojvodina in the UEFA Cup qualification against Atlético Madrid.

He'd continue his progression in his homeland for another two seasons thereafter, emerging as one of the most exciting talents on the continent, drawing interest from Dutch outfit FC Groningen, who signed the attacking midfielder in 2010 for a mere €1.23 million (£1.08 million).

Tadic hit the ground running in the Netherlands, scoring 14 times and grabbing 32 assists for Groningen over two years before he was on the move again, this time to FC Twente, then managed by Steve McClaren, for €7.7 million (£6.8 million), where his outstanding form continued.

The Serbian hit 32 goals and 36 assists in 85 appearances across two seasons for Twente, including 16 goals and 14 assists in the 2013/14 season, drawing eyes from the Premier League.

Dusan Tadic joined Southampton in July 2014 for £10.9 million under Ronald Koeman

Southampton, then managed by former Barcelona and Netherlands international Ronald Koeman, signed Tadic in July 2014 for £10.9 million, and joined the likes of Sadio Mané, Shane Long, Fraser Forster, Graziano Pelle, and Toby Alderweireld to make the move to the South Coast that season.

It had been revealed years later by Tadic's father that he was close to joining Manchester United instead, but opted to join Southampton, saying, "Dusan could go to Manchester United and Southampton. I wanted him to go to Manchester, to Louis van Gaal. But Dusan wanted to go to Ronald Koeman. We couldn’t work it out together."

Upon the attacking midfielder's arrival, manager Koeman said, "It was very important to get this signing done - not only for me, but for the squad and our fans."

On his Saints debut, Tadic assisted Nathaniel Clyne for Southampton's equaliser away at Liverpool in a sign of things to come, but would ultimately go on to lose the game 2-1.

Tadic would finish his debut season at St Mary's with five goals and eight assists across 37 appearances in all competitions, with the highlight of that season coming in Southampton's 8-0 thumping of Sunderland, where the Serbian scored once and registered four assists, equaling the Premier League record in the process, as Southampton recorded a seventh-place finish in the league.

His second season on the South Coast would be his most prolific, hitting nine goals and 14 assists across 40 appearances in all competitions, including a hat-trick of assists in a 4-2 home win over Manchester City and two assists in a 2-1 away victory against Spurs in the latter stages of the campaign.

Southampton went one better in the league table than the season prior, finishing in sixth, just three points shy of Champions League qualification, with Tadic integral to those efforts.

Tadic would continue to be a regular in the Saints side for the following two seasons, although his output saw a bit of a drop-off, only scoring three times and assisting seven in 44 appearances across the 2016/17 season.

Southampton would narrowly avoid relegation in the Serbian's final season at the club, with Mauricio Pellegrino being replaced by former Manchester City, Queens Park Rangers, and Stoke City boss Mark Hughes, who managed to keep them up by three points.

Tadic drew interest from the Netherlands once more, with Ajax striking a £10 million deal with the Saints to bring the then 29-year-old to the Dutch capital, bringing an end to his time in England, but the Serbian international was far from done.

In total, Tadic provided 24 goals and 33 assists in 162 appearances for Southampton, and was undoubtedly a talismanic player in those Saints sides that formed a golden era of Premier League football at St Mary's.

Dusan Tadic would go on to thrive for Ajax and Fenerbahçe after leaving Southampton, who may have sold him too soon

Tadic joined an Ajax squad, then managed by Erik ten Hag, possessing the likes of David Neres, Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong and Hakim Ziyech, in what was a truly unforgettable first season at the Johan Cruyff Arena.

The Serbian endured one of the most underrated seasons of all time, with a truly staggering 38 goals and 23 assists in all competitions that season, as Ajax romped to the Eredivisie title and reached the Champions League semi-final, narrowly losing out to Spurs following Lucas Moura's heroics.

Tadic became just the ninth player in history to receive a 10/10 rating by French sports outlet L'Equipe for his performance against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu in the Champions League Round of 16, scoring once and assisting twice, joining a select few of prestigious footballers to receive the same rating, including Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Robert Lewandowski.

The Serbian would spend five seasons in Amsterdam, making 241 appearances across all competitions and leaving with a mightily impressive 105 goals and 112 assists, before leaving for Turkish side Fenerbahçe in 2023, where he would hit double digits in both goals and assists in each of his two seasons with the club, after which he joined Al-Wahda in the UAE Pro League in the summer of 2025.

Tadic has expressed an interest in remaining within football following his eventual retirement, saying, "I can play at the highest level for a few more years, but I want to be a coach in the future.

"I played for Ajax, I play for Fenerbahçe, and I also played for Southampton. It is a very special feeling to represent a club you play for as a coach. We’ll see what happens in the future."

The attacking midfielder is unlikely to return to England in a playing capacity, but he could yet come back to Southampton one day, this time in the dugout, but will always believe that they sold him too soon.