Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger has revealed the reasoning behind the £4 million signing of forward Charlie Austin, labeling the move as a massive “statement” for the club going forward.
The England international was today announced as Southampton’s first, and likely to be only, January signing on a four and a half year deal as the Saints ensured a cut-price deal with QPR allowed them to secure the powerful forward’s future at St Mary’s.
In recent weeks, a variety of rumours have been flying around regarding the future’s of several Southampton players, including Victor Wanyama, Graziano Pelle, Sadio Mane and most recently, Shane Long.
However, with this monumental signing, Saints have reinforced their ambitions ahead of the coming seasons, as Krueger has explained.
He fits right into our present needs and we feel that it was something that we wanted to make a statement about to strengthen our British spine. It’s something that’s been on the radar for a few months now. He’s been tracked by our recruitment department – Ross Wilson and his people – for quite some time now. There’s a lot of information about him on the black box.
The black box has been a key part of Saints’ recruitment and scouting policy in recent seasons, helping them to identify every key aspect of whether a signing is right for the club or whether they are not quite the perfect fit. However, contrary to suspicions of injury, Austin has fit the bill perfectly for Southampton.
Above all it’s a signing that gives us a lot of depth in one of the critical positions in football which is the finishing, the need to score goals. We see huge potential in Charlie, we believe he is far from his prime.
Are you confident that Austin will be a good signing for Saints?
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