Southampton FC hit the jackpot with £1m striker deal - He made St Mary's his fortress | OneFootball

Rickie Lambert was the frontman for Southampton's back-to-back promotions into the Premier League

In the 2008/09 season, 27-year-old Rickie Lambert had just shared League One's Golden Boot award after netting 29 in the third tier alongside Simon Cox, a then-League One record. Just over four years later, he'd make his England debut.

His rise was astronomical, and all of it is down to his time following that season at Bristol Rovers, when Southampton forked out £1 million, despite having just been relegated to League One themselves, for the Kirkby-born frontman.

It was a risk, too, as Lambert had taken a couple of years to fully settle into life at Bristol Rovers three years earlier after tearing up League Two with Rochdale. The Saints were determined to climb back up the leagues in spite of their relegation, and their new striker had to hit the ground running.

Ultimately, it was a risk which paid off. Lambert broke his scoring record from the season before in 2009/10, and once Southampton were promoted back to the Championship in the 2010/11 term, the sky was truly the limit for both the club and for Rickie Lambert's career.

Rickie Lambert pre-Premier League

A lower league scoring machine at St Mary's

Southampton actually failed to even qualify for the play-offs in their first season back in the third tier in over 30 years, which is simply baffling given that Rickie Lambert scored 30 goals and added 13 assists on top of that.

The Saints did end up winning the Football League Trophy that season, however, with Lambert scoring three in six en route to a Wembley victory, which was rather poor by his ridiculous standards.

The 2010/11 season saw Lambert's numbers drop, but that didn't stop him from once again scoring in the 20s, netting 21 and assisting 11. More importantly, however, Southampton finished second, and part one of their return to the Premier League was complete.

Part two was a lot more straightforward as Nigel Adkins' side became just the fourth side to achieve back-to-back promotions from League One into the top-flight, due in no small part to Lambert once again being an attacking menace, notching 41 goal contributions in 42 games and finishing with the league's Golden Boot in his first season at Championship level with 27.

And now, at the age of 30, he was set to make his Premier League debut.

Rickie Lambert's Premier League performances earned him an England debut which he scored in

He scored on Three Lions debut too

Rickie Lambert's debut season in the English top-flight was an all-around success.

Firstly, Southampton were able to secure their Premier League status in their first season back. Alongside that, Lambert's proficiency in front of goal was able to be translated from the EFL leagues to the top division.

His 15 goals put him seventh in the Premier League's goalscorers charts, and had him tied with Frank Lampard as the highest-scoring Englishman in the top English league.

Because of that, he earned his first England cap in August 2013, aged 31, and scored off the bench with his first touch in a 3-2 win over Scotland.

His second Premier League season saw him up his creative numbers, which everyone associated with Southampton had become used to. He became one of the many talented top-flight players to score and assist at least 10 goals in the same season, netting 13 and providing a further 10 assists.

That summer, he was named in the 2014 World Cup squad, making a cameo appearance from the bench in England's 2-1 defeat against Uruguay. From someone who played in League One three years earlier, Lambert's rise is truly unlike many seen before.

And it was during that summer, whilst he was away in Brazil, that he secured a move to Liverpool.

Rickie Lambert post-Southampton and a career winding down

Lambert wasn't able to have that much of an impact at Liverpool as many Reds fans had hoped, lasting just a season at Anfield as the club underwent a transition period from Brendan Rodgers to Jürgen Klopp. There, he scored three and assisted two, with one coming in the Champions League against Ludogorets.

He was sold a year later to West Brom, but again struggled to keep up to scratch in the Premier League and was sold the season after to Cardiff City, where he ultimately retired following four goals in 18 Championship games in South Wales.

In a world where the footballing ideology states that you have to have made it in the Premier League in your early twenties or else you'll never get a chance, Lambert's rise was a true 'rags to riches' story that even had many outside of Southampton rooting for him.

And after it was all said and done for Lambert in Southampton, many compared his goalscoring prowess to that of Matt Le Tissier. And if that doesn't give him legendary status among Saints fans, not much else will.