Saints have signed goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg on a season long loan from Fulham as was speculated a month or so ago.
Marten Stekelenburg was being suggested as a possible replacement for the injured Fraser Forster at the end of last season, he was the first keeper to be linked probably due to the fact that he is Dutch and secondly because the keeper had been at Ajax t the same time as Saints manager Ronald Koeman had been manager, although he was very much second choice keeper for the duration of Koeman's reign.
In many respects this looks a good signing for Saints Stekelenburg who will turn 33 in September is at the peak age for a modern goalkeeper, old enough to have that confidence and experience needed, but not too old that his reflexes have slowed.
Stekelenburg enjoyed almost a decade at Ajax playing almost 200 games for the club in the Eredivisie winning the title in his final season when ironically he dropped the trophy whilst holding it aloft on the team bus touring the City. The fans weren't worried though he had been voted the club's player of the year.
He then moved to Roma in the summer of 2011 and at this point his career looked to be on a very upward curve, he had played for Holland in the 2010 World Cup Final and he was the established number 1 for his country, but 2012 would see it all start to go wrong.
Initially the move to Roma was fine and Stekelenburg went to the European Championships of 2012 still number 1 for Holland, but a poor tournament for Holland would ark the start of the keepers downfall, in 2012/13 not only did he find himself dropped from Roma but also from his country and he has not added to his 54 caps since then.
In the summer of 2013 Stekelenburg signed for Fulham but if he hoped that he would regain his former glories he would be wrong, he was injured on his debut and when he returned 2 months later Fulham were a team in turmoil, he played a few more games, but when Félix Magath took over as manager he was replaced by David Stockdale.
In the summer of 2014/15 he was loaned to Monaco having made only 11 appearances for Fulham in the Premier but again he found himself on the bench and didn't play in the League.
Now he heads to St Mary's hoping to kick start his career and in one respect this is good news for Saints fans as it indicates that Saints expect Fraser Forster to recover sooner than later in the season. If Ronda Koeman had gone for a big name keeper for a big fee such as Tim Kruul from Newcastle it would have spelled worrying news about Forster, but Stekenlenburg is very much a signing of a keeper who can play at this level but would not be expected to keep Forster out of the side although he would be good enough to give competition and keep Forster on his toes.
So the signing of Maarten Stekelenburg could be a very good signing and he could hopefully do a decent job for Saints in the coming season, hopefully his virtual two year hiatus from first team football will have renewed his appetite for the game and spur him on to have his swansong in the Premier League as he had hoped two years ago.