SAINTS BOSS Stuart Gray cut a bleary-eyed figure after a marathon midweek scouting mission that took him to Argentina.

But he'll be wide awake enough to be knocking at chairman Rupert Lowe's door to get the purse strings loosened.

Gray took advantage of the Premiership's international break to nip over to Argentina to take in no less than four matches, returning yesterday morning with a bulging dossier.

Although he found himself sharing grandstands with Leeds boss David O'Leary, Gray insisted his target was not the same as O'Leary who was running the rule over River Plate midfield prodigy Andres D'Alessandro.

Gray would not name his targets, but said: "I went over to have a look at one or two specific players, for both short-term and long-term purposes.

"But I haven't had a chance to speak to the chairman yet."

The Saints boss was left drooling by some of the South American players on show and said: "As you can imagine, I saw some fantastic players out there and when you look at top teams in any league in the world, they've nearly all got Argentinian players in their ranks.

"Argentinian players are as good as any in the world, but the skill is to find ones who fall within your scope," said Gray.

Gray landed at 8.30am yesterday morning and dashed back to Saints' Marchwood training ground where he conducted a training session that did not include Matthew Oakley.

The midfielder has been ordered to rest for three days by the club doctor after suffering delayed concussion, caused by a freak training ground accident.

Oakley said: "It happened last week before the Middlesbrough game, when I headed a ball awkwardly.

"Ever since the Boro game, I have been suffering headaches all week and when I saw the doc he told me I had mild, delayed concussion."

"He's ordered me to break training for a couple of days but there's no reason why I won't be fit to face Gillingham on Tuesday," he added.