IT is difficult to know what Jo Tessem is really thinking sometimes.

The Norwegian with the floppy dark hair and a permanent smile on his face picks his way up from the dining-room table at Staplewood after devouring a salad lunch sat opposite with Garry Monk.

Stepping outside into the bright spring sunshine ready to head home for the afternoon, Tessem stops for a chat by the railings.

He's in a good mood, but the subtext of the natter is that here is a man frustrated that so far his role in what has been a relatively successful season for Saints has been as a bit-part player.

"I am all for competition," he says. "It is just that some may be preferred to others and that is the privilege of the manager. Sometimes you think you are playing well, but others are preferred in front of you."

Work that one out!

The stats are these. Tessem has started just six matches this season and come on as a substitute 13 times to play 785 minutes of football. He has scored two goals.

Last season under Glenn Hoddle and Stuart Gray, the 30-year-old midfielder was a regular, playing 33 times, scoring four goals, and making his long-awaited international debut for Norway against Northern Ireland.

But the former policeman, signed from Molde for £600,000 in November 1999, has found this season a frustrating one.

"I have been playing football professionally for ten years now, and this is the first season when I have not been playing regularly," he said.

"That affects you quite a lot, in terms of your match fitness, your general shape. If you are playing regularly you feel more relaxed and far more confident. You feel the football in your blood.

"It is very difficult to keep coming on as a substitute. The whole thing feels very strange."

Tessem finds himself competing for a place in a cluttered midfield.

Two Fridays ago, Gordon Strachan called Rory Delap, Matthew Oakley and Anders Svensson together and told them that one would have to be disappointed and not play in their favoured central midfield role.

Throw in the names of Chris Marsden, Paul Telfer, Fabrice Fernandes and Imants Bleidelis (who Strachan thinks could push for a central midfield role next season), along with current fringe players Kleber Chala, Mark Draper, Dan Petrescu and Stuart Ripley, and you have 12 potential midfielders contesting four places.

If you want to make it unlucky 13 in the midfield lottery, then how about Kevin Davies? Talk about strength in depth.

For Tessem, he has come on as substitute at Arsenal and Sunderland this season to bag vital late equalisers.

Last Saturday at Charlton, he was given his chance after just eight minutes when Oakley limped off with a knee injury.

"It was a strange game," reflected Tessem. "I think the game had draw written all over it. We conceded a stupid goal, but fought hard and we more than deserved the equaliser.

"It wasn't too difficult for me to come on at that stage. We hadn't really got into a pattern, and I fitted in on the left side of midfield. It is more difficult coming on with 20 minutes left.

"I have played football all over the place. I was once left-back for Molde at a game in Bulgaria. I think the only position I have not played is goalkeeper.

"I am an offensive type of player, going forward is in my blood. The position I played last year suited me, going forward wide on the right."

Tessem was handed a 12-month extension to his contract in January - the contract should have been tied up last summer, but rumbled on.

"There have been rumblings, too, in newspapers back home in Norway that he will be speaking to Strachan this summer to see where he figures in the manager's plans.

Drawn on the subject, Tessem is a little coy. "I still feel I have something to offer the club, and I hope to be playing more and more. I feel I am in the best years of my career.

"Unfortunately, the contract should have been sorted out last summer, but it dragged on.

"I hope that by the club offering me a contract I am still wanted here. I would hope if I am not, they will tell me."