IT’S Saints v Doncaster, top v bottom, at the Keepmoat Stadium this weekend.

So you wouldn’t think it would be hard to guess which side was full of big money stars with bundles of Premier League and international experience.

Surely the side who are top will have the big names bidding for a return to the top flight?

Surely the side who are not worrying about their financial future can afford the big names players?

Surely it should be Saints?

No.

Saints are flying high, a model of consistency under Nigel Adkins, an understated gem of a side.

Doncaster are scrapping at the bottom, struggling for cash and look like facing a real battle to stave off relegation.

Yet it is they, and not Saints, who have the household names.

Not bad for a club with an average attendance of under 10,000 – about 15,000 less than Saints are currently averaging.

How is this for the core of a Championship side: Herita Ilunga, on loan from West Ham; Former Liverpool, Glasgow Rangers and Bolton striker and Senegal international El-Hadji Diouf; Striker Marc-Antoine Fortune, who cost Celtic almost £4m just two years ago; World Cup and Champions League veteran Habib Beye; Pascal Chimbonda, the Spurs star; Carl Ikeme, the Wolves keeper; And Blackburn’s former French under-21 star Herold Goulon?

Wow, you might say, that is quite a roll-call.

Nearly all names recognised by the wider footballing public in a way that, with all due respect, many of the Saints players are not.

Well, not yet anyway.

The reason Doncaster have assembled these unlikely resources is via what is effectively a footballing experiment.

It’s the sort of thing you might not have been overly surprised to hear emanate from Saints in years gone by.

It’s certainly a novel approach to trying to build a competitive team with very little in the way of resources.

Doncaster have linked up with one of football’s highest profile agents, Willie McKay.

The idea is that McKay sources these stars, who are not wanted by their parent clubs.

He brings them in and gets their parent club to agree the vast majority of their wages.

The players are then given a shop window to perform in with the view to them being sold on and Doncaster keeping a split of the cash, along with his parent club and – of course – a fee for McKay.

McKay was particularly busy last week, ahead of the loan window shutting last Thursday evening.

In a few days he brought in Beye, who has hardly played for Aston Villa this season, Fortune, who has hardly played for West Bromwich Albion, and Goulon, who has never played a senior game for Blackburn in the 12 months he has been at the club.

McKay has explained: “Take Herita Ilunga as an example.

“He’s on £26,000 a week at West Ham, not getting a game and they can’t get him a move.

“I called the joint-chairman David Sullivan and offered £1,000 a week to take Ilunga on loan. David laughed and said, “Make me a sensible offer”, so I said, “OK, £500”.

“Anyway, eventually we agree the deal on £2,000 a week and West Ham make up the rest of his wages.

“We take him at Doncaster, who are no threat to West Ham, and give him a shop window to perform by playing every week.

“If he plays well and I get him a move, say to Turkey for £5m, then I’ll reach an agreement with David Sullivan about the fee West Ham will receive, plus my commission, less his full £26,000-aweek salary for the period he was at Doncaster.”

Boss Dean Saunders is the only man at Doncaster with a veto over the transfers, having taken over from former Cherries boss Sean O’Driscoll, below left, earlier in the season.

It’s an idea McKay is confident will work.

“Donny have players on £7,000 a week and a core support of 10,000 people — nobody can sustain that,” he reckoned.

“We are going to work with Lyon, Auxerre, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne, Nice and Lorient by taking their unhappy players.

“In every squad there are two or three good players who aren’t getting a game for whatever reason.

“We will take them to Doncaster, put them in the shop window and sell them on with sell-on fees.”