Artur Boruc has reiterated his disappointment at finding himself out of the first team reckoning at Saints but has been told by Ronald Koeman that the door is still open if he wants to try and force his way back into the team.

The Polish stopper has lost his number one spot to £10m summer signing Fraser Forster and has a contract that will expire at the end of the season.

Borcu had been left out of the first team squad before the close of the transfer window while he tried to find a new club, but found himself still at Saints after deadline day.

It has left a slightly delicate situation for Koeman to manage and he revealed he has already spoken to Boruc about it.

“I spoke yesterday to Artur and it was a very good conversation,” said Koeman.

“Of course he was a little bit disappointed about his future because we spoke about that and the best for him was playing in another team but finally he is a player of Southampton.

“We start again and we start like we did in the beginning of the season and if he shows the spirit and the ambition that we expect from every player it can change always the situation.”

He added: “He is a player of Southampton, he has a contract in Southampton. He was always the number one, he’s a good goalkeeper, but I explained why we signed Forster and if he shows me his spirit as I tried to explain then maybe he will play again.

“It depends on a lot of situations, on a lot of possibilities but we have to wait for that.”

Boruc was one of 16 Saints players reporting back from international duty and so far they have all returned with a clean bill of health.

It leaves Koeman with a strong pool of players from which to pick, and he was satisfied after the close of the transfer window.

“You always in my opinion need totally 25 players and of the 25 there can be three or four young players to develop themselves in the training session and to play in the under-21s,” he reflected.

“You need at least 20 good Premier League players and now we have 20 good ones.

“You need those kind of players with all the international breaks, with all the matches that we have to play.

“That’s good and I’m happy about the team and I’m happy about how they work together and about the start of the season.”

Saints signed off for the international break with a highly impressive away win at West Ham and tomorrow host a Newcastle side that have had a stuttering start to the campaign.

“They don’t have a good start to the season, they have good players, good quality players and I know a lot about the Dutch players who play for Newcastle,” said Koeman.

“Maybe it’s a little bit more pressure on them to win finally but I like to see more what my team has to do to win against them.”