Saints have signed Chelsea left back Ryan Bertrand on a season long loan from the Stamford Bridge club.
The signing looks to put an end to speculation that Saints might be bidding for Argentinian defender Marcus Rojo, although perhaps Saints may consider him as a central defender.
Ronald Koeman made it clear that long term the club is hopeful of Matt Targett stepping up to the plate, but that perhaps it is a little early for him so a short term replacement might be the best option.
"He (Bertrand) is a top player who will bring a lot of quality to the team. He has experience at the highest level and is an exciting, attacking player, which is what I like to see in my full-backs.
"I’ve been very impressed with how Matt Targett is doing in pre-season, but he is still young and developing, which I am sure he will continue to do over the coming seasons.
"Left-back is an important position in the team because it is quite specialised in terms of the attributes needed to play there, so it is nice to get this signing completed because it gives us some stability.”
My big surprise when looking at Bertrand's track record is just how much experience he has got, despite opportunities being limited at Chelsea and the fact that he has played more games in cup competitions than in the League where he has started 21 games for the blues plus another 7 as sub, the 24 year old Bertrand has played around 160 league games out on loan to other clubs including 16 for Aston Villa in the second half of last season.
So in this respect he has experience at the highest level including the Champions League final itself where he became the first player to make his debut in the Competition in the 2013 final itself, he played 70 minutes before coming off with a knock .
although the pain was eased as Chelsea eased out Bayern Munich 4-3.
Whilst not exactly being the exciting high profile signing that Saints fans were perhaps hoping to hear new of, Saints do need to boost the squad overall rather as well as bringing in star names so to speak, so in this respect this is a good move for Saints as long as they now go out and make a few key signings
Internationally Bertrand has won one cap for England coming on for Leighton Baines in August 2012 in a friendly against Italy, he was selected for the squads afterwards for the World Cup Qualifyers in the Autumn of 2012 but was unable to play due to a virus.
In this respect Bertrand could be a good signing for Saints in that he is yet another home grown player at Chelsea who has found progress blocked by a constant stream of star names, he is an undoubted talent and he has a lot to prove, hopefully Saints can benefit from this.