Sharp admits begging Pochettino 'let me train' before Southampton exit

Sharp also confessed he wanted to stay at St Mary's after scoring nine goals in 15 Championship matches to fire the club to promotion.

The 39 year old, who currently plays in League Two with Doncaster Rovers again, signed for Saints for around £2million in January 2012.

Nigel Adkins called in the forward for reinforcements as Saints pushed to finish second in the Championship and secure back-to-back promotions.

However, despite scoring and assisting in a League Cup tie at Stevenage, he would play just 20 Premier League minutes before being shipped out.

Opening up on his Saints spell, Sharp told EFL Unfiltered: "I had family and my friends that helped me, but it (the motivation) had to come from myself.

Billy Sharp scored 10 goals in 18 appearances for Saints (Image: PA)

“I was playing for Doncaster at the time and I actually wasn’t training because I had a groin injury. I was then playing and scoring on the weekend.

"That was masking everything, because I wasn’t in the best of shape. Southampton wanted to take me and I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.

"I knew Nige but left it in the summer. I thought I was getting fitter and stronger, and he took me in January. About a week before that, I scored against him.

"That might have sealed my audition. I went to Southampton, which is the first time I’d had to move away, but I couldn’t turn it down, I had to go for it.

“The first two days of training, it was the biggest shock of my life. I rang my dad and told him that this is not going to work and that I’m way off it.

“Adam Lallana, Morgan Schneiderlin and Steve Davis playing one-touch, two-touch… I couldn’t keep up with the ball with my eyes, let alone with my body.”

He continued: “I was then on the way to Nottingham Forest, an unbelievable football club and the fans were right behind me. It was a mental season.

"I’d scored 11 (goals) before Christmas, we’d just beat Leeds United 4-2 on Boxing Day and sacked Sean O’Driscoll – we were seventh in the League. 

“And then Alan McLeish came in, (managed) 11 games and I think we drew seven of them. He got the sack.  Billy Davis came in, he got the sack.

"My loan was up, I wanted to stay at Southampton and I wanted to stay at Nottingham Forest, but both of them were out of my hands.

“I was knocking on the door of Poch saying ‘let me train’, so I could be professional and ready to leave. I was training with five guys, which was not ideal.

“I ended up going to Reading on one of the last days, then I ended up getting injured on the second day because I had not been training properly."