Southampton are back in the Championship for 2025/26, but with a new manager in Will Still, there is reason to be excited for the season ahead.
Off the back of a record-breaking Premier League campaign, but for all the wrong reasons, the Saints are looking to bounce back once again in the second tier.
Key players at St. Mary’s will be targeted this summer, including Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who is on the radar of Burnley and West Ham. However, it is forwards that are needed in Hampshire.
Southampton have lacked a clinical touch in the last 12 months, and Still will be hoping to find a new star up front and EFL Analysis has taken a look at the club’s top five scorers of all time.
Southampton’s top five scorers of all time
5. George O’Brien – 180 goals
In fifth place is George O’Brien, who scored 180 goals in 281 appearances for the Saints between 1959 and 1965.
Southampton badge - Southampton v Arsenal - Premier League
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The Scottish forward joined the club from Leeds United after starting his career at Dunfermline Athletic in his home country.
O’Brien became somewhat of a legend at The Dell as he helped Southampton rise from the Third Division to the Second Division in his first season on the south coast, finishing as the team’s top scorer in four of the next five campaigns.
4. Terry Paine – 187 goals
Terry Paine is a true Southampton great, and he still holds the title as the club’s all-time leading appearance maker, playing over 800 games in all competitions across a 17-year spell, with 713 of those coming in the league.
Terry Paine
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He scored 187 times for his side over the course of his time in red-and-white, seeing them rise from the third tier all the way to the First Division.
Paine parted with the Saints in 1974 as he joined Hereford United, but it will forever be the Hampshire club that he will be synonymous with.
3. Bill Rawlings – 198 goals
In third place is Bill Rawlings, who spent 12 years at The Dell after first joining as a teenager in 1918 as an apprentice.
He became a professional in February 1919, and was influential in helping Southampton rise to the Football League when they were elected to form the Third Division.
Rawlings scored 198 goals in 337 matches for the Saints, earning two caps for England in the process before he eventually left for Manchester United.
2. Matt Le Tissier – 209 goals
Matt Le Tissier’s career was simply sensational, and he became an icon of the Premier League thanks to his rather rogue but fantastic style of play.
Matt Le Tissier during the Charity match between a Saints Legends XI and a Russell Martin Foundation XI
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One of the greatest technicians in the history of the division, the midfielder scored 209 goals in 540 games for Southampton. He stayed loyal to the club, despite multiple opportunities to move to sides that were towards the top of England’s highest division.
The Guernsey-born star became the first midfielder to reach a century of goals in Premier League history, before he ended his professional career in 2002, 16 years after making his debut.
1. Mick Channon – 228 goals
Finally, taking the crown as Southampton’s all-time leading scorer is Mick Channon.
The forward scored 228 goals in his 608 appearances for the Saints in two separate spells, making his debut in 1966 before departing for the first time in 1977.
Channon re-joined Southampton in 1979 following two years at Manchester City, and without that second term, he would have been below Le Tissier on this list. He also picked up 46 caps for England, finding the back of the net 21 times.
The current top scorer at Southampton is unlikely to get anywhere close to the top five
Adam Armstrong, the player who scored the Saints’ play-off final winner against Leeds United in 2024, is the club’s current top scorer.
The striker has scored 32 goals in 142 games for Southampton, but just two of those came in the Premier League last season before he was sent out on loan to West Bromwich Albion.
The Championship will offer the 28-year-old more opportunity for goals in 2025/26, and if he is kept at St. Mary’s, he will only add to his tally.