Saints make the relatively short trip to Reading and a quick reunion with former manager Ruben Selles who has now finally been appointed as the Royals boss after their financial woes.

This will be another strange match for Russell Martin's Southampton side, firstly with only a couple of low key departures and the Championship season only two weeks away, Martin has to try and balance putting out a side that will actually be here come September along with game time for those that may be and then the question of those that definitely wont be.

I have seen criticism of the club online accusing them of being a shambles in the transfer market, but the club are dictated to by the buying clubs, if they don't get a reasonable bid in from them, what can they do ?

Sadly the one thing that they definitely can't do is plan for the new season with any certainty, in many respects they are being held to ransom by big clubs such as Newcastle, Liverpool & Chelsea, who have all been linked with our players but so far have not made a serious bid.

Many of our squad may well find out that they are not as well rated by the top clubs as they have been assured by their agent and may find themselves staying at St Mary's, that may well or may not go well for the club.

So in the meantime Russell Martin has to prepare a squad or perhaps more worryingly 3 squads over the next week, with the chances that perhaps 10 players will be gone in the next 6 weeks.

Bizarrely the last time we travelled to Reading was in April 2013 when Nigel Adkins, sacked by Saints just two months earlier was in charge of Reading for his second game, but his first at home, a situation that Ruben Selles now finds himself in.

Saints won 2-0 that day with goals from Jay Rodriguez & Adam Lallana, on the bench was James Ward Prowse although he did not get on the pitch.

Ruben Selles is having problems of his own as he tries to compile a squad for League One, he has little money and will be looking to see who he can bring in, the last game Reading played featured triallists and the chances are that this game will see the same, whether that will include former Saint Theo Walcott who has trained with the club is yet to be seen.

One thing that is sure though is that Saints will have a lot of fans there, they have sold somewhere between 2-2,400 tickets for the game and in the away end it is a sell out. It is good to see that the majority of our travelling support is staying loyal and with season ticket sales of around 20,000, it looks like the home support is as well.

So this game will give no real clues as to both our squad for the coming season or for that matter how the season will go.

Russell Martin will make multiple changes again, he has to, he has a massive squad at the moment and he has to give everyone a game over the next week, if you include the youngsters who are breaking through, he could just about put out a different starting XI in each of the remaining 3 friendlies.

Two players who I would think will get a game at some point will be new signings Ryan Manning and Shea Charles, both travelled to Turkey last week for the Goztepe game to assimilate them into the squad, but neither played, I would be very surprised if both didn't feature in this game.

So hopefully we will achieve the best result from this game, not just a win, but a run out for the squad and a chance for Russell Martin to learn a few things, including just who will be staying and going in the next week.

Photo: Action Images

davidargyll added 10:05 - Jul 21 “Many of our squad may well find out that they are not as well rated by the top clubs as they have been assured by their agent…” And by you too! £200million plus I seem to recall you said we could raise; hmmm, sounds like you’re no longer seeing that flying pig ….
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A1079 added 10:19 - Jul 21 There is often alot of criticism of our fans and support on this forum but this shows that there is a very good hardcore support within our fanbase which (no matter how dire things appear at times or however frustrated they may be with the club management etc) will still turn up and support the team.
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Block8 added 10:49 - Jul 21 It is without doubt a problem for Martin as he has to try to assess his best eleven, particularly into the shape and style he prefers. As a fan all the rumours, although part and parcel of the pre-season, are this season an absolute pain due to our relegation. Saying that we must have an idea, by now, of who is going to throw their toys out if they don't get the move, their agent has assured them is available? In that respect we must surely concentrate on those that won't and give them assurances, that if the right bids come in we will allow them to move on! I'm hoping, like everyone else, that this will be a good season to be a Saints fan & with a bit of help from the train drivers will miss very few games (fingers crossed) COYR

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HythePeer added 10:52 - Jul 21 You say: "Saints won 2-0 that day ... on the bench was James Ward Prowse although he did not get on the pitch." I wonder if there's a connection?? 🤔
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kenchilds70 added 11:00 - Jul 21 To me the only players who seem to be keen to move are Lavia, Salisuand Livremento. So they should be bench warmers today and only play if we "need" them. Give priority to our best eleven + subs. Its time to grow a pair .
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SaintPaulVW added 11:29 - Jul 21 No one who is after a move is going to put too much into it. I suspect that all relegated PL clubs have this issue hanging over them until the window shuts. Just got up hope that dealing with this hangover combined with getting comfortable with the new system doesn't give us too much ground to make up on when we are hopefully pushing for promotion later on in the season. COYR

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ElSanto added 12:34 - Jul 21 Could def get £200m £45m - Lavia £30m - JWP £30m - Livramento £25m - Bella K £20m - Che Ad £20m - Walker P £15m - Salisu £10m - money from other players
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SaintNick added 13:42 - Jul 21 Davidargyll, the difference is not what they are worth, as ElSanto has pointed out and he has been conservative as if Che Adams & Tella also went that could add another £30 million. However the question is how many of the bigger clubs are interested in paying the going rate for them, up to recently we were told that Newcastle were after Bella-Kotchap, Ward Prowse & Kyle Walker Peters, but now all these rumours are dying down as its just agents talk

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Monksway added 13:52 - Jul 21 Two teams for remaining friendlies. One we expect to keep and one we sell if the money is right. Don't bother with those who will be sent on loan regardless. Bazunu, Bree, Bednarek, Stephens, Manning, Charles, Smallbone, Armstrong A, Mara, Edozie, Ballard. McCarthy, Tino, Caletta- Carr, Salisu, KWP, JWP, Lavia, Sulemana, Alcaraz, Tella, Adams. Don't bother with Onuachu, ABK, Aribo, Stu Armstrong,

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SaintNick added 14:06 - Jul 21 If he stays I think Aribo could be a key player in the Championship
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LoisDeem added 16:23 - Jul 21 I'd like to see a committed team effort for this fixture, worthy of the virtual death or glory approach that has to be applied in the Championship. I trust the manager doesn't pander to the stroke it around till I get a move prima donnas from the off. The fans will back this, so drop them, move them on if you can. See through any such charade from the get go -no more passengers on this bus (Nigel Adkins tribute). In my opinion it was a combination of this complacency and bad overall man management that got us unnecessarily relegated. Whilst many of us have been spoilt by the likes of Le Tiss, Osgood and Worthington who so often made things look effortless, we also know that top players still need to put a shift in, as typified by Armstrong the original and Shilton, Holmes, Keegan, Ball and Channon. Hope this mere mention makes a lot of my fellow fans feel all warm inside. Long hard season ahead, so might as well start with proper intent at the Berkshire reality check.

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SanMarco added 12:36 - Jul 22 I don't know why the window can't shut at the end of July or before. Ditch the ridiculous 'loyalty payments' nonsense and there would be plenty of time to sort everything out and even have two or three pre-season games with your 'proper' team. With the way things are though relegated sides are in a very weak position. I think there are more than kenchilds' three who want to go - others will be biding their time because the higher the fee the higher the 'bonus'. The truth is that the buying clubs can wait knowing full well that we have to buckle in the end...Everyone knows that Lavia, JWP, KWP in particular will NOT be here come September and that 'everyone' includes the buying clubs. Good luck to all who are going this afternoon.

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