Victor Wanyama reveals biggest regret from his historic EPL spell

Kenyan football legend Victor Wanyama has opened up about some of his personal regrets from his time playing in the English Premier League.

Wanyama was the first and still is the only Kenyan to have played in the lucrative EPL, having donned the colours of Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur.

The midfielder made a historic switch from Scottish giants Celtic to Southampton in the summer of 2013 for a reported £12.5 million.

He quickly established himself as a key player, joining a team then managed by Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino, with the likes of now Liverpool legends Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk as well as Manchester United’s Luke Shaw among the bright young prospects at the club.

The Kenyan formed a great midfield partnership with Frenchman Morgan Schneiderlin as Southampton finished eighth in 2013-14, seventh in 2014-15 and then sixth the following season, their best-ever in history, before he left for Tottenham in 2016.

Wanyama says his spell at Southampton was a great time as they were a small team who were shocking big teams whenever they faced each other.

“When I was playing in Southampton, playing against the big clubs,” Wanyama said via an Instagram post.

“We were very good especially against the big clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City. We had a very good coach and tactically, our coach was really good in Pochettino and also Ronald Koeman.”

The former Harambee Stars captain says what made them punch above their weight was the fact that they were young and willing to learn from their enterprising coaches.

“We did get good results because of their tactics and also, we had a good team, a good group of young players who knew what to do and followed these instructions very well so we were a nightmare coming to the big games,” he added.

However, the father of two regrets that such a good team failed to lift any piece of silverware during those great years in the English south coast.

“I think also the big teams feared our team because we were playing with energy, pressing high and not letting the opponent to breathe so we were a nightmare for the big six. It was a pity that we did not win anything but we had a very good group,” Wanyama further stated.

Wanyama’s departure came after Southampton had started decimating the team by selling their top players for high fees to bigger clubs, leading to a drop in the standards, after which they were relegated in 2023 after 10 straight years in the top flight.