Saphir Taider is the least publicised of Saints signings of the summer transfer window, seen as a makeweight in the deal taking Osvaldo in the other direction he has not arrived with the fanfare enjoyed by his fellow new arrivals.

The problem is when you arrive on loan at a club there is still a stigma attached to that loan signings are temporary and that if a player is willing to loan a player out then he cant be that good.

That is perhaps a viewpoint still rooted back in the 1980's, in the modern game there are plenty of reasons why club's would want to have a loan deal from both sides of the fence.

Saphir Taider it cannot be denied is an unknown quantity to most Saints fans, but that doesn't mean that he is not very good, still only 22 he got in a number of games for Inter Milan last season after joining them in a £5.5 million pound deal as well as playing 48 Serie A games for Bologna and winning a dozen caps for his country Algeria.

This is good grounding for the player and it shows he has the potential to push on and make a real name for himself in the game.

After being an unused substitute up at Anfield on Sunday he appeared for the U21 side yeasterday and got a decent goal to cap a good all round display in which he played the whole 90 minutes.

This bodes well and will give Ronald Koeman a few selection problems for the game against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, perhaps not in the starting line up just yet, but certainly coming off the bench, but more to the point unlike last season these are options that can change games and change tactics.

Koeman now has a squad helped by the emergence of the likes of Lloyd Isgrove etc and he knows how to use them, the only real difficulty will be keeping all of those options happy as not all will be able to get a game.

Under Mauricio Pochettino the starting line up was almost set in stone meaning that there was little incentive for most of our squad, indeed after his initial burst of games Callum Chambers spent 3 months on the bench without even a minute of Premier league game time under a manager who could only see players in one role in one unchangeable system, now the likes of Taider offer genuine quality to win games of football.

I expect Taider to start again on the bench, but given that it is a home game and hopefully with all respect to West Bromwich a game we will be looking for more possession than at Liverpool, it is likely that at some stage Taider will make his competitive debut.

Here we have a player who will be looking to make an impact, he is hungry to make that major breakthrough and he knows he will get his chance and this is why he could perhaps be the surprise package of our summer transfer window.

One thing is for sure with the quality we have on the bench now we can perhaps win a game after going behind for the first time since the days of Nigel Adkins, could Saphir Taider be the man who achieves that for us.

Photo: Action Images

montecristo added 10:24 - Aug 19 I think he ll be huge for Saints, he s aggressive never say die and a real nuisance check italian coverage of this guy
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slynch added 11:28 - Aug 19 I think Gardos needs to be the "Surprise of the Season"!?
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TreeHugger added 12:20 - Aug 19 agree with slynch. gardos has to perform
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darkangelv2 added 14:18 - Aug 19 Chatted to a mate who attended the 21s game - they said he looked lively throughout. Fingers crossed! Agreed ref Gardos too though. Yoshida has too many mistakes in him and Fonte needs a better quality partner.
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