This morning I am left looking at a picture of Sadio Mane for a month and thinking that whoever compiles the the Saints calendar does not pay any attention to the Saints squad and the likelihood of players leaving.
I have to confess first off that I don't buy the Official Saints calendar till January, therefore I have rarely paid over £3 for the pleasure of owning it, indeed sometimes I have managed to get hold of a copy for as little as £1, yes I know that makes me a tightass, but then again no one has ever been nice enough to give me a copy for Xmas so it's not entirely my fault.
But those who have bought it at full price of £9.99 in December either for themselves or as a gift have a right to actually have a product that is up to date an that is not the case for the 2016 Saints calendar.
Taking a little closer look at the running order it seems that the monthly pictures (there are two per month) are just put up going from the keepers up to the forwards, this means that the first months went quite well, January and February featured Kelvin Davis, Ronald Koeman, Maarten Stekelenburg and Fraser Forster.
The editors got lucky here in the fact that they got three names in early who would not have been at the club after May, although in the case of Forster he only just returned to action in time for his calendar appearance.
For a few months it was all straightforward and all the players were still at the club, but who thought of putting Steven Caulker on the June page, lets be blunt the player was only on a years loan till May, it wasn't rocket science that it was a bit stupid to put him after that loan spell was up, in the end he was gone six months before that so would have barely been ere for January, but it does emphasise how badly these products are researched.
Again for July we had Victor Wanyama, stop any Saints fan in the street after August last year and they would have told you the chances of Wanyama being here in July were about as likely as a Martian invasion, so why did we have to seethe at the Kenyan traitor staring down at us from our walls just at the very moment he was betraying us for the North London Yobboes.
But it s the final three months of the year that are most galling, of the six faces staring down at me in this period, only Shane Long has played with any regularity and it's even questionable whether he will play much in his month November.
October saw Juanmi who left in the summer, Florin Gardos who someone must have forgot to put in the defenders section and slotted in as an afterthought and who anyway hasnt played a competitive game since February 2015, November sees the aforementioned Long and the departed Sadio Mane and then comes December, Jay Rodriguez and Graziano Pelle, the latter a player who will be gone six months previous to his calendar appearance.
Now I know these calendars are not produced by the club itself and that they licence it out to a company that will also produce calendars for virtually every other club, but surely both the calendar producer and the club have a duty to try an provide a product that is fairly up to date, of course there will be players transferred out etc that you cannot legislate for, but with a little co operation between both parties surely a better product can be produced.
I know these things go to press early so they can be released about now for the Xmas market, but show a little knowledge especially when it is a product aimed at kids between 6 & 66.
I notice today that the club has released the 2017 edition, I hope that they have got the big names in early doors or that perhaps they will sent out the pages on a monthly basis so that they can avoid putting Saints fans through months like this, having to be reminded of those players who have chosen money over God's own team.
On a more positive note my local Chinese takeaway owner has a keen interest in sporting injuries as well as being a Shandong Luneng supporter and has agreed to take December off my hands in exchange for a special curry with chips instead of rice.