Saints new signing Sadio Mane will probably have to settle for a place on the bench on Saturday against Newcastle United due to his International duties delaying his arrival at Saints.

Saints fans look forward to the arrival of Sadio Mane from RB Salzburg with anticipation, although few had heard of him before he suddenly emerged as a target in the final week of the transfer window, most have been enthused by not only his impressive statistics but clips of him in action on the internet, enough to realise that we might have a great talent on our hands.

But we might have to wait a little longer than 3pm on Saturday to see it, Mane has still not set foot in Southampton due to International duties let along even met or trained with his new team mates.

This week he has been in action for Senegal and tonight (Wednesday) he will be playing for his country in Botswana. This means that after the game he is probably not likely to be able to start his trip to England to Thursday morning and it is a 12 hour flight.

This being the case if he is lucky Mane could arrive in the country some time on Thursday, probably late afternoon early evening and he has then to make his way from Heathrow to the hotel in Southampton.

After this gruelling trip he is unlikely to be in any fit state to train on Friday morning or even meet his new team mates, so it could be the pre match meal on Saturday before he joins up with the squad to be formally introduced to the rest of the Saints team.

This is no preparation for any match let alone one that is your debut for a new club with big things expected of you.

The more likely decision by Ronald Koeman is that Mane will start on the bench, fitness of course won't be a problem assuming that he has not picked up any injuries tonight, so it will be a case of letting him see how the team plays etc then perhaps giving him a run out towards the end.

Mane has had a good start so far to his season scoring twice in the four games he has played in the Austrian League, plus a goal for Senegal in their 2-0 win against Egypt at the weekend, with attacking players its easier to throw them into a team than defenders and with no International break the chances are Koeman might have given him a start, but it's a long season so waiting a little while longer won't harm us, in fact it will wet the lips of Saints supporters who hopefully will come in numbers to see Saints new revamped squad.

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 09:46 - Sep 10 What's gonna happen with the plethora of riches in defence will be more interesting?
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