SOFIANE Boufal insists that Saints have not seen his true quality yet and says just “wait and see”.

The Moroccan attacking midfielder is growing in influence at St Mary’s, having had a difficult first season after his then club-record £16m move from Lille in the summer of 2016.

The 24-year-old rarely played at the beginning of this campaign, either, but a sensational solo goal against West Bromwich Albion “helped” him establish himself at Saints.

Now, after increasingly good performances, Boufal, who is adamant there’s so much more to come from him, is starting to deliver what the club must have dreamt of when they signed the mercurial talent.

“I have more confidence and I feel fitter. I now feel very good in my body and in my head,” he said.

“Now I play more regularly it’s easier for me to show my qualities and I know my qualities and at the moment you don’t see a lot of my qualities; I know I can do better.”

When asked what more Saints supporters can expected to see from him, he smiled and said: “Wait and see.”

He continued: “I feel better and better and I feel more fit and confident. Yes, I need to progress, I need to be more consistent, I know this, but now the most difficult period is gone and now I look forward to the future.

“To be honest with you, I’m confident for the future.”

A knee injury he suffered in May 2016 while at former club Lille hampered his early progress at Saints, having had to wait until October 2016 to make his debut.

Inflammation of that same knee later in the season meant he missed the Africa Cup of Nations and other fitness niggles meant he never really got any momentum last term, despite making 30 appearances in all competitions.

“I don’t know one player who just do the good, good, good moments in football – all players do bad moments and a bad season,” he said, talking about his first season at St Mary’s.

“I came last season and I was injured. I didn’t do preseason and I knew my first season would be difficult. But all these things are behind me and now I look forward.”

After that tough first campaign, Boufal didn’t rest.

During the summer, while most of the football world were sunning themselves, the tricky attacker was putting in extra hours of training so he could really make his mark this campaign.

“I had four weeks holidays and I didn’t take much of that as holiday because I worked a lot in the summer to prepare for this season,” he explains.

“I knew this season was very important for me.

“The start of this season did not go as well as I’d hoped for, but it’s football and I worked hard in this moment. I stay focused and I knew when the manager gave me my chance I would take it.

“Now I feel better, I feel fit and I’m confident about the future.”

Certainly, those extra sessions have started to pay dividends. His wonderful winning solo goal against West Brom as well as a brilliant touch and assist at Manchester City for Oriol Romeu's strike at the Etihad Stadium is testament to that.

The Baggies strike, which saw him burst out of his own half, weave past several opponents before slotting home, will live long in the memory for Saints fans, and Boufal knows how significant that goal was to changing his fortunes at St Mary’s.

Boufal, who now wants to find more consistency, started just one of Saints' opening eight Premier League matches, mainly being used as an option from the bench by boss Mauricio Pellegrino.

“If the manager put me out it’s because he had a good reason, so I needed to work harder,” he said.

“Yes, my goal against West Brom helped me because I play more now and I’m more confident. It helped my confidence.

“Now I’m playing regularly and I’m happy and I need to progress better, but I’m not so worried about that.”

He added: “I know my qualities and I know this kind of goal I can do, because in France I did this – I scored one or two goals like this.

“That’s my qualities; I can score a goal like that.”

Boufal is now targeting his first World Cup with Morocco, but knows his form at Saints will be important in making his dream of going to Russia next summer become a reality.

Morocco were drawn against Euro 2016 champions Portugal, Spain and Iran in their group for the tournament.

“For going to Russia I need a very good season with Southampton, so now I’m focused about my club,” Boufal said.

“But it’s a dream to play in a World Cup. We have very difficult games, a difficult group, against some big teams, but we have good players and we have nothing to lose.

“Now I’m more focused with my club because it’s the club who will help me to play at the World Cup.”