Are you excited about a pre-season Southampton derby?

While Southampton are now a strong Premiership side with a fantastic squad I can't help but think that this friendly would have been much more exciting had it been one of last year's pre-season friendlies. My reasoning is simply that despite just having one of the most successful seasons in their history there is rather a lot of changes going on at St Marys.

Gone is their striking talisman Rickie Lambert to Liverpool, who is lighting up England's World Cup warm ups and gone is the inspirational and tactical genius of Mauricio Pochettino to Spurs. Their biggest star of all though, Adam Lallana is surely also on his way to Liverpool this summer while Luke Shaw is expected to head to the Red Devils. So does what is left of the squad get AFCB fans excited enough to fill out Dean Court on a Friday night in July?

To be fair I believe it will depend more on who the Cherries can sign before that date. If Eddie Howe adds two or three players to the Dan Gosling signing then I expect it will be a good match to attend as the club will only just have returned form its summer training camp abroad and it is likely that Eddie will field his strongest team which is perhaps less likely against Salisbury and Dorchester.

The Southampton game will be a good indication for AFCB though to see how far behind another top Premiership they are having already played Liverpool at home in the FA Cup. Not being in the same division as the Saints doesn't make me yearn to play them though. I may be in a minority over that but the Swansea would seem more appealing to me. As usual people will pick and choose their games.