Most of the news about Newcastle United this week has been Eddie Howe moaning that his squad is down to the bare bones with Covid and injuries and how this is so unfair on his side in their fight against relegation.
When Newcastle moan about the number of injuries in the squad and how games should be called off, they won't find much sympathy amongst Saints supporters.
Against Manchester United on Monday, there were 19 Newcastle United players named in the matchday squad. However, the eight Newcastle United players named on the bench included two goalkeepers and two teenagers who are yet to start a Premier League match.
That reminds Saints supporters of our trip to Manchester United last season when our squad contained two teenagers yet to start a League game in the starting line up let alone the bench, we too had two keepers on the bench and aside from Nathan Redmond and goalkeeper Fraser Forster the other 7 on the bench were all kids, most of whom had never made a first team appearance.
Newcastle fans will probably be unaware of this as we didn't moan about it we just got on with the game and we probably do all know how that finished.
So after getting their game called off against Everton and now it seems trying to do the same against Saints in a few days time, i'm sorry but the cynical side of football fans is starting to come out.
Newcastle online fanzine The Mag were dismissive of the views of Everton fans when the game was called off saying:
"The outrage of Everton fans, amongst others, to the postponement was laughable, considering Newcastle United were one of less than a handful of Premier League clubs to have not already had a game called off."
I'm not sure it was laughable though, Everton had every right to question how Newcastle with a squad of 25 outfield players & 5 keepers of which 21 of the outfield players and 2 of the keepers have made Premier League appearances this season.
In this pandemic it is said about 1 in 10 currently have the virus, so given that Newcastle will have to lose around 12 of their 25 outfield players before they can get the game called off, if we say they have 4 injuries and 8 covid cases, their average is around 1 in 4 having covid, why have Newcastle got such a higher ratio ?
Newcastle had every incentive to call the game off and indeed the trip to St Mary's on Sunday, yes they will be down to the bare bones, but we had to battle through virtually the whole second half of the season with 6 or 7 genuine first team players out injured at every given time, did we ask for games to be called off ? no we got on with it.
But Newcastle are playing for higher stakes, if they had lost at Everton and indeed come to St Mary's and lose it would be a big task to get out of relegation trouble even with their multi millions.
It is those multi millions that are the issue here, Newcastle will spent big in January to get them out of trouble so they can spend big again in the summer in their attempt to push themselves into the top 4, so they would definitely prefer to play two clubs in Saints and Everton whom they would see as two winnable games with their new big signing than even their full squad at the moment 100% fit let alone ravaged by Covid.
So they will be desperate to get the games off and play them when they will have a greater advantage, if the League brought out a ruling that no player signed after the original date of the postponed game could play in the rescheduled fixture, then I bet Newcastle would kick off against that.
I am not going to get into the political issues surrounding Newcastle' recent takeover, but the mindset of the club and a proportion of the fanbase has changed, a little like Manchester City who had spent decades putting themselves forward as the peoples Club Of Manchester and that they would never want to be like the corporate owned United, the moment that it happens, suddenly the past is forgotten and it is sad that Newcastle fans will probably go the same was as City's change from being plucky underdogs and salt of the earth fans to being just as arrogant as those they once professed to despise.
Perhaps Newcastle are below the 13 outfield players needed for the game to go ahead, but Everton fans, Saints fans and indeed most fans who support clubs other than Newcastle will look at it with a lot more cynicism.