When the 18 to face Leicester City was announced last night there were three notable absentees from the squad.

Mark Hughes is known as a manager who will accept nothing less than 100% commitment from his players and will not tolerate disruptive influences in his squad, last night at Leicester City saw three players not even making the bench, who are coincidentally three of our most expensive signings.

For Guido Carrillo this was the third game in a row he has not been on the bench, in fairness to him although he has not yet scored for the club he did play vital parts in games prior to Hughes arrival and the return of Charlie Austin from injury has put him down the pecking order.

But the absence of Mario Lemina and Sofiane Boufal, especially Lemina was puzzling.

Both were on the bench against Chelsea but did not get on the field, both started in Hughes first game in charge in the cup win at Wigan and Lemina started against WEst ham in the next game with Boufal playing the last 25 minutes as a sub after the damage was done.

Since then neither has played a single minute out of the last three games.

Lemina is a strange situation, he missed the Arsenal game supposedly through illness, was on the bench against Chelsea but missing again last night in a game when you would have thought that he would have been needed on the bench as cover.

But Hughes opted for Steven Davis who had not played for two months prior to the trip to the King Power, I can understand why Davis would be included for his leadership qualities, but Lemina should be our best player this season, he has shown in games his undoubted talents, so why has he spent so much time on the bench and at times not even got off it or for that matter as of last night even on it ?

Certainly it was rumoured that he fell out with Pellegrino back in November over an argument about whether he was fit to face Everton or not and that seemed to be the start of his issues at the club.

Now he seems to have fallen foul of Mark Hughes which is sad to hear as we could sorely use his talents.

Boufal is not so strange, again he is capable of some great things, but too often he does not produce an end product, his absence is not so puzzling.

But the fact remains that all three have been and in the case of Carrillo continues to be our record signings, costing around £55 million between them, that is a big amount to spend for Saints and so far value has not been achieved, although in fairness to all three of them, a big part of that has been the formations and tactics that the managers they have played under have employed.

Will any of them play any further part in this season ? At this time it looks highly unlikely injuries aside.

Photo: Action Images

REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 12:03 - Apr 20 Its just a sign of how badly most of our signings from the last 2 years have done. Carrillo is a joke. Even last night for the last 10 minutes you would chuck on a target man to pump the ball long to just to get the ball forward and hopefully hold it up or flick it on. But Carrillo isn't even on the bench to do this, and why? Because he's frickin useless!! Not strong enough or good enough in the air to be a target man and too painfully slow to offer any threat on the ground. Even Charlie Austin is quicker than Carrillo! It's an absolute joke. I doubt he'd even get a game in the Championship. And worst of all it's a signing that's cost us our Premiership status. If the club had signed a really good target man in January then we could've been safe already.

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SanMarco added 12:27 - Apr 20 Yes - anyone wishing to defend Les Reed (and there are still some) must explain why three managers ina row (all appointed by him) have not wanted to play his big signings? Imagine what the Boufal/Carillo/Lemina/Gabby money could have been spent on: competent players able to fulfill a necessary role and wanted by the manager. It IS Reed's appointments and signings in the last two years that have led to this fiasco. No one else in a high paid, high profile job (except politicians and financial bankers) would get to perform so poorly for so long without getting the SACK...

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SanMarco added 12:28 - Apr 20 Sorry: investment bankers - all bankers ought to be financial...
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saintjf added 12:30 - Apr 20 Very depressing. We seem to have spent badly. Was it because we were looking only for sell on at a profit players rather than experienced players that would have given us some stability? The failure to address the centre half position is also why we are where we are.
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saintpp added 12:52 - Apr 20 Think you are reading too much into this. Mh did explain his reasons for Carrillo that he is going with proven players not the time to risk a player who has yet to score. Lemina apparently has some injury issues and why risk him with even bigger games coming up,And with Davis you know what you are getting. As for Boufal well maybe its true he isnt 100% right now i dont beleive Hughes would feel the need to make up stuff as to why he isnt playing.I rate the player and Im sure in a side playing well he would shine but maybe he isnt the man for the battles ahead.

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NZsaint added 12:59 - Apr 20 I like Carrillo.houses for courses I suppose like see him again
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Sanguin added 13:35 - Apr 20 SanMarco, I agree that Les Reed has a lot to answer for. But SURELY Carrillo is a Pellegrino signing rather than a Les Reed signing? We understand that the Manager, Les Reed and Head of Recruitment make decisions on player recruitment. To be fair to Les Reed, we don’t know how much influence he’s had on each decision. It’s also unfair to blame him for every perceived bad decision without giving him credit for any good decisions. I’m not defending him or attacking him, I’m just asking for objectivity rather than scapegoating.

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BoondockSaint added 14:41 - Apr 20 Don't know why the absence of Lemina is puzzling. After he made the same stupid mistake that lead to goals in two straight games he should never put the shirt on again. Like Boufal, his ego won't let him pass to a team mate.
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underweststand added 14:56 - Apr 20 Les Reed will accept that many signings were rubber-stamped by him, but t..bf Saints always allow managers to buy in some of their former players. Koeman had more than a few , and Puel got Pied , and wanted (and got) Boufal. Lemina seems to have been short-listed by the scouting staff and would have been bought anyway. Carrillo was a last-ditch attempt to save Pellegrino's reputation, as was Cortese's riduculous approval of allow Pochettino'to tame Osvaldo, and that debt took years to pay off. Carrillo looks little bette,r but at least he hasn't punched out anyone - yet. Reed's overall performances (post Cotese) show that he has done a lot correctly, too. The problem of the three record signings named above, is that they seem to have been bought to fill a place that no longer exists when the (new ) manager uses a different formation and they can't fit the new set-up. The final point is a cultural one. Many people think that signing someone for £15-20 million will solve a problem , but I've noticed that none of the above has give even a simple interview (in English) upon being signed and it beggers the thought - do they really understand tactical talks or really know what's going on?. Both Hojbjerg and Hoedt showed no problem in simple conversation and answering questions, whereas the newer guys seems culturally "lost" in England. History shows that even British players who can speak our language don't always have the nous to understand tactics, how is it for French /African/ Latin players who exist only on tourist English.? They will undoubtedly move on and have success elsewhere, but it seems pointless for us to employ "personnel " at £50-60K-a-week if they can't even follow what the manager says.

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NewburySaint added 15:04 - Apr 20 These expensive potential flops are probably Cortese's fault......
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SanMarco added 15:18 - Apr 20 Cortese had a couple of flops of his own to be fair. I understand your point Sanguin. What I mean is that all the 'good things' may have done are, in football terms, long in the past. The last 2 years have seen one fiasco after another and someone has to be responsible. It took some doing to get us relegated - I am not looking for scapegoats, just accountability.
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underweststand added 09:54 - Apr 21 In search of a scapegoat Les Reed seems to be the fans no.1 target, but it shouldn't be forgotten that it's usually par for the course for (a new manager) to buy in some of his former players and whilst Cortese had control of the purse strings he went back to Europe to buy in someof the worst buys the club has suffered. Mayuka, De Ridder, Ramirez was only the start and Cortese's final approval of the Osvaldo deal is a chapter that won't certainly appear in Pochettino's memoirs. Those bad deals cost the club around £30 million -not counting the expensive long term contracts they had. I have a lot of respect for the manner in which Cortese reorganised the club's administration, but he should have lefty the football side of things to someone who knew more about the game, when you consider that the cost of the squad who got us from L1 to the Prem. cost less than the £6 million we paid for Jay Rod, and half a dozen of them were still good enough to play for us in the Prem. The Koemans had more than a few of their old players from Holland, and Puel must have approved the purchase of Boufal, who despite scoring just a handful of goals - each worth Goal of the Season - has contributed little more to the side, and who could have guessed the outcome of Gabbiadini's Saints career after that whirlwind start last year.? Carrillo was a last gasp effort to shore up Pellegrino's sad time as a manager, and it's clear that none of them would find a regular place in Hughes type-formation set on a more attacking style that we are used to. The choice of managers is only down to those who are available at the time, and a quick look back will show that half of the Prem.sides have changed manager a couple of times in the last two seasons. Whilst I contemplate the rumour that Chelsea may sack Conte in the summer, I wonder exactly who our fans think would be a good choice of a Prem. manager.? As for the future of the three named players --it won't only be them departing if we do go down. No international, especially those going to the World Cup would want to play in the Championship.

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SaintBrock added 18:58 - Apr 22 ...but if they are on contracts they just can't simply walk out and that includes Ryan Bertrand, Cedric Soares and Oriol Romeu the three most likely to attract decentnoffers. So play Championship football next year they must. Mind you others like Long, Austin & Stephens will still be a league or two out of their depth
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