Even before the signing of Charlie Austin there was a lot of speculation about the future of Graziano Pelle, now that has increased tenfold.
Graziano Pelle has been a great signing for Southampton Football Club he arrived at a time of crisis and was faced with the challenge of filling the boots of Rickie Lambert who some felt should never have been sold.
Almost two years later and there aren't too many Saints supporters who feel that this was a bad bit of business for Saints and that is down to the contribution made by Pelle in that time
This season he started it very well and in a couple of games, especially Chelsea away, he put in perhaps the best performances in the central striker role since we returned to the Premier League and i do include Rickie Lambert in that equation.
Approaching Xmas and things looked rosy for Pelle, by the end of November he had scored 6 goals in 13 games in the Premier League and was in sparkling form, then came not only a awful spell for Saints, but injury to Pelle himself that meant that he missed most of that spell and that perhaps extended why it lasted so long.
But now the future for Pelle is far from certain at St Mary's, the arrival of Charlie Austin has posed several key questions.
The first question was when Pelle would go ? even BC (Before Charlie) it seemed that Pelle would go in the summer, with his 31st birthday looming like the departure of Lambert before him there were many reasons why Saints would want to move Pelle on, the main one perhaps being resale value, this would not be unattractive to the player himself who had always expressed a desire to finish his career in his native land, somewhere he had not really proved himself at Serie A level.
This would have meant he could have left Saints as Lambert did with his head held high and the fans best wishes ringing in his ears, but the arrival of Charlie Austin has completely changed the goal posts.
Now Pelle finds himself down in the pecking order at St Mary's, Shane Long has come in and done a great job and is starting games on merit and the arrival of Charlie Austin has perhaps pushed the Italian down to third choice striker.
This now causes a dilemma for the player, with the European Championships looming he will be keen to make sure he stays in the Italian squad, he is there on merit and has scored some vital goals for his country, but if he isn't playing games then he is vulnerable to being left out.
So his participation in this summers tournament could be dependent on Shane long losing form and Charlie Austin being injured, without either of those things happening, he could struggle to even get off the bench for Saints.
Indeed that is if he is even on it, he wasn't at Old Trafford although that is unclear as to whether it was down to giving Pelle more time to let his injury fully heal or tactical in that you can't have too many forwards on the bench, the truth is probably a little bit of both with resting the injury being a convenient excuse.
So Pelle can probably see some writing on the wall for him and it isn't good news, from a Saints perspective I'm sure that Ronald Koeman would rather keep Pelle to the summer and will probably push for that, but that might not be the best thing for the player himself. But Koeman has to do whats best for Saints and if he did let Pelle go and both Long and Austin are out injured then a few fingers would be pointed.
So although most Saints supporters are extremely glad to see the arrival of Charlie Austin, they should also spare a thought for Graziano Pelle who a couple of short months ago seemed to have the world at his feet at Southampton and not only in the Premier League but Internationally as well, but now is facing being in the wilderness.
Saints will have to do what is best for the club and that is likely to be keeping hold of Pelle till the summer, if the club do that then Saints fans should not let Graziano Pelle become the forgotten man, he quite rightly should be given the credit for just what a big part he has played in not only Saints rejuvenation last season after the turmoil of 2014, but also this season.
Charlie Austin could well take the plaudits in the second half of this season and his goals could fire us into Europe, but without Pelle's contribution in the first half we would not be in a position to be able to achieve that.