Ask any Premier league manager and they will tell you, International breaks are not good for business !

Ronald Koeman will be looking forward to Wednesday when he will at last be able to get his squad or at least the bulk of it together for the first time in ten days.

Most of Saints squad is away on International duty and Koeman will not yet have had the chance to even introduce the two new signings Toby Alderweireld and Sadio Mane to their new team mates let alone work with them, this will probably be a situation replicated across the Premier League, someone somewhere has not thought out the logistics of closing the transfer window as an International break begins.

It will have been a very quiet Staplewood over the past week or so and with many of the younger players away with various youth levels of International squads the Dutch manager will barely have had enough to play a game of six a side in training.

But the real issue is the two new signings, Koeman will not have much time to work with them and assess just how he is going to integrate them into the side, of course he will be well aware of their talents, but the reality is till he works with them and gets a feel for how they play and their attitudes etc it is not going to be easy and three training sessions is not a long time.

Photo: Action Images

nomorerumours added 09:30 - Sep 8 Good points made. Sadio Mane plays the 2nd African cup match for Senegal on Wednesday. So the earliest that he'll be in this country is later on Thursday, leaving just Friday for training with our squad. I'm not sure whether he has ever visited England before (he was signed up abroad). Quite apart from all the changes our club have been through since the end of last season, the shortage of time issues were compounded by the World Cup. I do not see that shifting the closure of the transfer window can make much difference as there is precious little time during the 3 months off-season. Players need a break before commencing pre-season training (even without World Cup or other distractions). The January window is also a distraction as it happens mid-season when all the clubs are playing EPL and FA Cup footy (at least there is a break from both internationals and European competitions then). I guess it is something that everyone will just has to live with.

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Zambucco added 09:48 - Sep 8 He probably took the opportunity to spend more time on his yacht in Marbella, and a chance to wear his chinos and deckies!
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GeordieSaint added 21:28 - Sep 8 Watching the England game at the moment. How on earth has Clyne not got in this squad? He should probably move to arsenal.
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davepid added 00:21 - Sep 9 So what are our thoughts now on the closed season? At the end of June everything looked hopeless and the money was on the owner asset stripping us. Now we are more confident about the forthcoming season . Have saints managed a rare success for a football club - built a better squad and made a profit in the same transfer window period? I would like to know what contribution Les Reed and the Canadian made to all this this ? Both very silent over most of the summer and things only seemed to move with Koemans arrival.any inside info on who can claim the credit for all this ? Coyrs

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