Quite. It wasn't to be and everyone moved on, and as you say we signed some decent defenders immediately after.
Even if he goes on to get 75 England caps and three Ballon D'Or trophies I fail to see how that could be seen as proving Saints fans "wrong" or some retribution against imaginary fans "writing him off" while he was here. We didn't want him to go, but he did. Good luck to him.