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In a recent Squawka podcast a question was posed. "If you had £50m to spend in January which club would you trust to spend it?"
You can listen here. Skip to the 53 minute mark. All of the guests (an agent, a stats guy, a journo) pick the saints or praise Reed for the due dilligence and track record of finding talent for relatively small figures.
Meanwhile our fans are having an existential crisis about the lack of centre back incomings.
The simple fact of the matter is Les Reed obviously couldn't find the defender he wanted and was happier sticking with Stephens, Gardos and maybe even Alfie Jones rather than burning money on someone they weren't convinced by.
So onto todays game. Another chance to assess how good Stephens can be and directly compare him to our former captain and hero.
Prediction time
Lawro: 2-1
Southampton also come into this game on the back of a poor result, losing to struggling Swansea on Tuesday, but I think they will be much improved here.
Merse: 2-1
It's really difficult to know which Southampton team will turn up. I think home advantage will play a part here so that's why I'm going with a slender Southampton win.
Dan V: 1-1
We're rubbish again.
Allen: 0-1
Gotta stay true to form of dominating the match but coming away with nothing.
Jake: 1-1
Jose Fonte gives away a late penalty for Saints to equalise.
Will: 1-1
No Van Dijk, no clean sheet. Fancy a draw here.