4 players who have played for both Southampton and QPR
1. Ronnie Edwards
Start with the one who could actually start against Eckert's side on Saturday. Edwards played 16 times for the Saints and never scored, and QPR made his loan move permanent on the 9th January.
He has not been out of their back four since. Twelve league starts this season, 1,080 minutes, and a defence that is joint-best in the Championship.
Do Saints miss him? Probably not, with Schlotterbeck and Stephens in form but there is no doubt that the former Saint is pushing on at his new club.
It is odd to see a former player settle so quickly. Saints Marching are already writing about who else could leave in the winter, and Edwards is the cautionary tale.
His old club also face a Matsuki who could keep the goals flowing on Saturday.
2. Charlie Austin
Austin is the headline act. He scored 48 goals in 89 games in his first spell at QPR, and Southampton signed him from there in January 2016. Saints fans remember him for 20 goals in 81 appearances, which sounds modest until you remember how many of them really counted.
He went back to Loftus Road later, first on loan from West Bromwich Albion and then permanently, and added 15 more.
Now he plays for Hungerford Town, a long way from Loftus Road and St Mary's, with the goals that made his name still the thing everyone remembers about him.
3. Steven Caulker
Caulker is the one Southampton supporters would prefer to forget. He arrived on a season-long loan from QPR in July 2015, played eight times, and did not score.
His last appearance was the 6-1 home defeat to Liverpool on the 2nd December. A few weeks later the loan was cancelled so that he could join Liverpool himself.
The same January also brought Austin the other way. One QPR player left, another arrived, and the second turned out far better.
Caulker is now an assistant manager at Konyaspor in Turkey, which is not a path many predicted for him back then.
4. Tony Sealy
Sealy is the veteran of the group. He signed his first professional contract at Southampton in 1977 and played eight times, including as a substitute in the 1979 League Cup final, which Saints lost.
The best of him came after he moved on. At QPR he scored 18 goals in 68 games in the early 1980s, which is a far busier career than a cup final cameo hinted at.
Four names, two eras, and only one still in the league. Edwards is the link that will count on Saturday, because he will decide how Matsuki and Larin get on, and the rest are stories for the pub.
Southampton fans will give Edwards a polite round of applause. Then they will try to score past him.
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