Right back Cedric Soares has put pen to paper to a new four year deal at Southampton Football Club and is proud to be part what is being achieved at St Mary's.

Four months ago Cedric Soares footballing future looked uncertain, he found himself out of the team under Roanald Koeman who for some reason not made public seemed to prefer Cuco Martina in the closing third of the season.

To the average Saints fan this did not make sense, Cedric had grown into his role after initially taking time to come to terms with the Premier League and just before he was axed he had been part of the defence that had just had a run of clean sheets.

But the summer of 2016 changed everything, firstly Ronald Koeman made a shock U turn on his own statements and indeed ethics and left for Everton and then in the European Championships, suddenly Cedric was first choice at right back after being on the bench in the group stages.

We all know what happened next and now Cedric's situation changed, he had suddenly gone from looking for a new club to being back under a manager who rated him.

That has now led to a new four year deal being penned and Cedric is now back as a viatal part of Saints future, not only this season, but going forward, as once again Saints are showing that they are committed to moving forward as a club and building on the foundations they have.

Some have said we are a selling club, but that is not telling the whole story, we are a club who know that at the moment we cannot compete with the big six in financial terms, so we have to employ a different strategy, by signing our key players to long term contracts, we ensure that in the main that strategy is dictated by the club and not the player, we only sell when it is in the best interests of the club.

Of course there will be exceptions as in Victor Wanyama refusing to sign a new deal and preferring to let his contract run into it's last year so it meant Saints had to sell, but that will be the case sometimes and is hard to do anything about, but I will say one thing, I would rather have bought a player like Sadio Mane for instance for £10 million, get 2 years service and then sell him for £35 million than buy a player for £5 million who will see his contract out mainly as a reserve.

Yes we want loyalty, but we are starting to build that now and players know if they sign for Saints they will be looked after.

Speaking to Southampton’s official YouTube channel, Cedric said.

"For the players, it's a really good feeling, because the club is showing us that they like us and they trust us and that we also did a good job for the club, and I feel proud to be part of the project and to be part of Southampton and I hope we achieve much more.”

“I'm really happy to be signing this new deal. Also I need to thank all the fans for that, and all the support they gave me last season, and already in the start of the new season as well. Also for everyone that works in the club, I need to thank them as well, because without them it wouldn't be possible, so I am really happy for that.”

Cédric also spoke about the reasons behind wanting to extend his commitment with Southampton.

"I had a deal with them already, I was really happy,”

“They gave me more confidence, they show me also that they trust in my football and they like me as a person as well, so I am really happy to be part of this club and be part of this family as well, and I hope we achieve a lot of success in the future.

"Southampton is improving every year in every detail, and that is very nice to be part of it and to feel it from the inside, because we can see step by step that everyone is on the right way, and I hope we achieve much more success in this year immediately and also in the next years. Southampton is a team that is growing every year and I'm really happy to be a part of that.”

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