The Hoops ex-ace left Parkhead last summer to join the Saints in the Premier League.
Southampton midfielder Stuart Armstrong has given his honest opinion to the Daily Echo on how his debut season at St Mary’s went and how playing for the Saints has differed from turning out for Celtic, the club he left to move south of the border.
The 27-year-old spent two and a half years at Parkhead, joining the Hoops from Dundee United in the winter of 2015 and going on to win four Scottish Premiership titles, two Scottish Cups and two Scottish League Cups (Transfermarkt).
In the summer of 2018, Southampton paid Celtic a reported initial fee of £7million – which could rise further depending on various factors – for Armstrong’s services (BBC Sport) and he was unveiled as a Saints player on 26 June on a four year deal (official website).
It took the Scotland international some time to force his way into the Southampton starting line-up amid relegation struggles and a change in manager from Mark Hughes to Ralph Hasenhuttl, but he ultimately made 19 starts and came off the bench 14 times, scoring four goals in the process (Transfermarkt).
With Armstrong in the Scotland team for the upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers against Cyprus and Belgium, he looked back at his first season in the Premier League and how it felt to go from the Scottish Premiership’s top side to one who has endured two difficult Premier League seasons in a row.
“It’s been an interesting one. Obviously changing teams is a big thing, it takes time to adapt and go into a different league, which is in a lot of ways very different,” he told the Daily Echo. “There has been a change of manager too so it’s been up and down, but what I’ve found playing football over these past years is that football is always up and down and you should never be too high or too low.
“I certainly think I have learned a few things, experiencing different types of games, more physical games, sometimes faster games. You have the privilege at Celtic to dominate games and we were winning more than we were losing. Sometimes down the road that’s not the case. Trying to learn from those experiences is something I am quite enjoying as a football player.”
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