Low socks and high hopes - why Tyler Dibling is being tipped to follow in the footsteps of Gareth Bale, Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw
There is a video online that catches the moment everyone went mad about Tyler Dibling.
It is from a few years ago, a 16-year-old Dibling, playing for Southampton’s under- 23s, scores a sensational hat trick of near-identical goals against Newcastle United that was spliced together and went viral.
In the video, Dibling dribbles at speed from the half-way line, sliding the ball with wonderful close control between both feet before shuffling it into a little space and arrowing a left-footed shot from outside the area into the bottom right corner of goal, in sixth, 33rd and the 40th minute.
The clip posted by Southampton was shared and liked thousands of times and picked up by Sky and other major broadcasters.
A technically-gifted left-footed Southampton teenager scoring wondergoals evoked obvious memories of Gareth Bale and Luke Shaw. One commenter also pointed out that the way Dibling struck the ball was similar to Saints legend Matt Le Tissier.
And it wasn’t only the internet that was sent into a frenzy.
When it became apparent Dibling was open to a move, Newcastle were preparing an offer for a player whose name every scout on the circuit knew, one scout who was monitoring him told The i Paper, but Chelsea beat them all to seal a deal worth around £1.5m.
Nobody can pinpoint exactly why it didn’t work out for Dibling at Chelsea. Something didn’t click and he lasted only a few months before returning to the south coast.
It speaks favourably of both clubs that they were prepared to put the future of a teenager ahead of any financial wrangling and agreed to reverse the transaction, and Dibling came back after some deliberation in Southampton’s Staplewood training base about how best to integrate him into their academy.
Perhaps it is his quiet, shy personality that prevented him from settling in west London. It had, after all, taken him a decade to blossom at Southampton after he was discovered at clubs in Axminster, Devon, aged seven.
LA LINEA DE LA CONCEPCION, SPAIN - NOVEMBER 15: Tyler Dibling of England in action during the Men's U21 international match between Spain and England at Estadio Municipal La Linea De La Concepcion on November 15, 2024 in La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain. (Photo by Jes??s Ruiz/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Dibling has made an impact for England at age-group level (Photo: Getty)
“He was picked up by Southampton’s West Country scouts,” Chris Robinson, head of youth recruitment at Southampton who previously worked at Chelsea, tells The i paper.
“I watched him many times when I was at Chelsea. He was always a talented boy, could always beat people, left-footed, could score and make goals. He was always of interest.”
It was when he returned to Southampton for a game with Chelsea that he knew he wanted to go back and spoke to his dad, who set the return in motion.
“When you’re younger and you get a bit of traction to your name and your agent tells you this club, this club and this club are looking at you, you’re like ‘oh my god, oh my god,’” Dibling later recalled.
“When I was younger I was a Chelsea fan and all my brothers are Chelsea, so once I heard that… it’s just a bit surreal. You want to jump straightaway, and that’s what I did.
“Obviously I thought about it, but maybe I should’ve taken more time to think about it. When I went I realised it wasn’t for me.”
Back on the south coast, a variety of factors have converged at the right time this season to transform the 18-year-old into the club’s surprise Premier League star.
Dibling is now around 6ft 2ins tall, so while not fully developed it is a sizeable frame to compete in men’s football.
Southampton manager Russell Martin is credited with working hard to improve his off-the-ball play – an area he is said to have lacked in his earlier years – and having the bravery to field an inexperienced teenager from the academy as he tries desperately to keep Southampton in the Premier League.
His rise to prominence this season is even more remarkable when you consider he barely played in the Championship last year and in summer was weighing up whether a loan would be worthwhile, but in a difficult first season back in the top flight for Southampton he has been a sparkle of positivity.
Fans are enthralled by his fearlessness, his ability to beat an opponent with skill and a deceptive turn of pace. That he wears his socks low adds to the enigmatic, cool, confident aura that surrounds him.
Although that is borne out of comfort rather than style.
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 24: Detailed view of the shins of Tyler Dibling of Southampton during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Liverpool FC at St Mary's Stadium on November 24, 2024 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)
Dibling’s trademark low socks (Photo: Getty)
Dibling has always hated wearing his socks pulled up – finding it uncomfortable – and he was at an England youth camp when Jimmy-Jay Morgan, a teammate at Southampton who is now at Chelsea, suggested wearing them down.
It stuck, apart from one time when, before he made his Southampton first team debut, Jason Wilcox, at the time head of Southampton’s academy, recommended pulling them up, out of respect. Wisely, he did as he was told, but has worn them down since.
“Every credit to the manager Russell Martin – he’s helped him develop his off the ball work,” Robinson says. “He didn’t have that before. He’s really improved his game. And, again, fair play to a manager that when a team is struggling in the Premier League to get results he’s consistently picked Tyler on merit.
“He can make things happen and create and hurt the opposition, and the manager has had the nerve to pick a young player when lots of managers just retreat into the more experienced players. As a result Tyler has probably been our player of the season.
“A young English talent ripping it up in the Premier League is terrific.”
Dibling considers Martin like a second dad.
Southampton’s manager handed the player his first Premier League start on the opening day of the season.
In the game against Manchester United a month later it still didn’t feel real: Dibling recalls feeling like he was playing The Journey on Fifa – the first-person mode – looking to one side at St Mary’s Stadium and seeing Marcus Rashford, a player he had used on the video game for years. In real life he made sure to get Rashford’s shirt after the match.
Dibling has played as an attacking midfielder, predominantly either on the right or in the middle, throughout his time in the academy (apart from one half as left-back for the under-11s when a team-mate was injured).
He went through a little wobble – literally and metaphorically – when he had a growth spurt around 14 years old, his legs feeling as though they weren’t listening properly to his brain (apparently quite common for young footballers) but he always stood out.
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 24: Tyler Dibling of Southampton during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Liverpool FC at St Mary's Stadium on November 24, 2024 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)
Dibling has lit up the Premier League despite Southampton’s woes (Photo: Getty)
For the visit of Leicester in October, the Southampton programme published an interview with Dibling titled Tyler Dibling: The shy outsider who became the face of Staplewood.
And there is quiet optimism in Southampton’s famed and fruitful academy that Dibling is emblematic of something bigger happening at the club right now.
Their 11-year stint in the Premier League, from 2012 until 2023, which included a sixth-place finish and European nights against Inter Milan, was powered by academy players, such as Adam Lallana, James Ward-Prowse and Shaw.
After promotion back to the Premier League Southampton were finally given a chance to showcase what their academy talents could do at their own club, where previously players such as Bale, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott had been sold on.
Their decline and eventual relegation ran parallel to the slowing down of that production line, the players coming through not quite hitting the same heights and as a consequence the first-team lacking quality and transfer budgets reduced without those sales.
As a knock-on effect the fine recruitment that brought in players such as Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk was impacted.
There are high hopes more are due to follow in Dibling’s loping strides. Whether they can keep him will depend on how the future unfolds.
The i Paper has been told Manchester United and Newcastle are keeping close tabs on his situation. It will take an almighty effort for Southampton to stay in the Premier League this season, but it is not impossible. Rival clubs would look to exploit relegation.
But maybe that early experience might make Dibling think long and hard before taking the leap elsewhere.