Bingo has always been a popular sport in England although the halls haven't usually been clogged with football supporters, but now Saints fans can play a brand new game.
A decade or so ago Bingo halls were springing up all over the place and were then and still are popular places to wile away an hour or two and win a few pounds. Indeed Saints legend Matt Le Tissier even used to go in them himself on the odd occasion as was documented in a 1990 edition of The Ugly Inside.
Now a new game has sprung up in the Southampton area called Saints Transfer Rumour Bingo, you dont need to even leave the comfort of your own house, as long as you have access to the internet and more time than sense you can enjoy hours of pointless fun scouring the media and ticking off those missing numbers on your card.
Like collecting Pannini stickers its all about getting a full set of Southampton Football Club's first team squad stories linking them with other clubs.
The first objective is to get a full set of an area of the pitch ie Defenders, Midfielders, Wingers and Attackers and then move on for the full set.
So far this season we have been a bit short in Goalkeeping rumours, but in defence you can already have collected Clyne, Fonte & Alderweireld this season.
In midfield its just as profitable, Schneiderlin is an obvious choice, Steve Davis was linked with Rangers yesterday Harrison Reed and Ward Prowse are reaching the age where Arsenal automatically link themselves with one of our players and Sadio Mane only needs 2 more goals to trigger a clause in the media that requires them to link him with Tottenham Hotspur.
Up front Jay Rodriguez is a staple in the sports press, if its a slow day then he will be linked with a couple of clubs, likewise Shane Long if he scores in two games in a row that entitles him to be linked with a club of the stature of Swansea if he makes it three then its Spurs if he was to make it four in a row then Liverpool anything over that and Man Utd.
The game is easy to play and Sun Bingo cards can be adapted for use, between now and the end of April there are prizes for a straight line be it across the the back four and midfield, or vertically from a goalkeeper, full back, winger and forward.
Then in May we go for a full house and depending on Mauricio Pochettino's holiday commitments, whether Brendan Rodgers still has a job and Arsene Wenger's transfer budget the winner could be claiming one of the fantastic prizes below by late June/early July tops.
To win all you need to do is submit a complete set of links to the story for each individual and make your claim, prizes include
1. An autographed copy of the best selling book by the Daily Mail's Neil Ashton "Unbiased journalism my way"
2. A day out with Brendon Rodgers in a tree overlooking Staplewood
3. A set of photographs of Saints U17 squad in action with personal handwritten notes by Arsene Wenger
4. An autographed calculator used by Les Reed in negotiations with Liverpool last summer.
5. A pigeon brought down by Dejan Lovren in Instanbul recently