£2m Southampton deal for Sunderland star truly hit the jackpot | OneFootball

Kelvin Davis was an integral part of Southampton's rise from League One to the Premier League in consecutive seasons

In the summer of 2006, Kelvin Davis' stock was on the floor, following relegation in his sole Premier League campaign with Sunderland.

The goalkeeper kept just four clean sheets in 33 top-flight outings, as the Black Cats won just three times and collected only 15 points, which at the time was a record, two years before Derby County's 11-point campaign in 2007/08.

Davis had made a name for himself as a top Championship shot-stopper at Ipswich Town before his move to Wearside, but now he had to rebuild that image, and that began with a £2 million switch to Southampton.

However, St Mary's wasn't the most stable of places during the mid-to-late 2000s. After suffering relegation from the Premier League themselves in 2005, it wouldn't be long before the Saints crashed and burned all the way into League One amidst financial difficulty.

Southampton's parent company, Southampton Leisure Holdings, would enter administration in 2009, and there was uncertainty surrounding whether the club would survive. Understandably, a player in that situation would likely move on.

Not Davis, though, who would become the poster for the rebuild which was to follow, and captained the Saints in their return to the Premier League.

Kelvin Davis weathered the storm and kickstarted the rise at Southampton

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It's worth noting that Davis' Southampton career started on the front foot in 2006, as the Saints would squeeze into the top six after winning five of their last seven games, securing a play-off bout with Derby.

They would lose that two-legged affair on penalties, with Davis unable to save any of the Rams' four spot kicks. That would then kickstart the slide down the Championship table, just surviving relegation in the 2007/08 campaign and then ultimately falling into the third tier the year after.

However, despite the club's relegation form, the performances of Davis in between the sticks were admirable. The then-32-year-old played every minute in their relegation campaign and still managed to keep 12 clean sheets, being awarded Southampton's Player of the Season as a result.

Off the field, the club were undergoing issues surrounding its future due to Southampton Leisure Holdings entering administration, and the likelihood was that a 10-point deduction would be imposed on the Saints when they were bought by Markus Liebherr. With how well Davis was performing, it would have been difficult to retain him that summer.

But Davis himself rejected a Premier League return with West Ham to stay at St Mary's, signing a three-year contract extension that summer.

In a way, that signature highlighted the ambitions of the new ownership, which were seen later on in the campaign when seven-figure fees were being paid for the services of Rickie Lambert and Jose Fonte, two other stars who would spearhead the rise up to the top flight.

Indeed, three years later, Southampton were a Premier League club once again, coming up just short in the third tier in 2009/10 after their 10-point deduction stopped them from finishing in the top six, but the Saints finished second in back-to-back campaigns from then on to earn consecutive promotions.

Throughout that time, Davis was ever-present. He would miss just six games in three years and earned a spot in goal in the PFA Team of the Year in all three campaigns.

He's dropped all the way down to League One with Southampton, but weathered that storm, and finally, he could say he was a Premier League player once again.

Kelvin Davis retired at Southampton and would work there for a further six years

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Ultimately, while Premier League football may have been a goal for Davis, achieving it with Southampton was the ultimate prize.

He could have jumped ship for top-flight football numerous times during his spell at St Mary's, but after a nightmare year at Sunderland, the shot stopper was keen to remain at a place where he was happy and playing his best football.

Davis turned 36 a month into the 2012/13 campaign, Southampton's return to the Premier League, so he didn't make too many top-flight appearances, with the likes of Arthur Boruc and Fraser Forster taking over the number one spot.

But he was still an apt backup and made 18 Premier League bows over three years before retiring in 2016, aged 39, with a testimonial to follow.

He'd immediately move into coaching at St Mary's, overseeing development until 2017, when he was appointed as a first-team assistant coach, and even took on the role of caretaker manager in 2018 when Mark Hughes was sacked. In the end, he'd leave the club in 2022 and has since gone into management in non-league.

Overall, Davis made 301 appearances for the Saints, winning various awards along the way, in a playing career that spanned a decade, but a working career that spanned 16 years.

The former goalkeeper is correctly heralded as a modern-day legend at St Mary's, and a lot of the good in the rise up from League One to the Premier League can be traced back to him.