Saints will be hoping that Safri will bring a little bit of steel to the midfield aligned with an eye for passing the ball, one thing he wont bring however is goals, in 174 appearances for both Coventry and Norwich he only managed to hit the net 4 times, not a great strike rate for a midfielder an average of less than a goal a year.

To fund the deal it looks very much like Jonh Viafara will be sold to West Brom as mentioned on this site earlier, a shame because at the end of last season Viafara was probably our best player, a fact confirmed by his performance at Derby in the play off game, however it was quite clear that George Burley preferred others to Viafara.

Hopefully it will be third time lucky for saints with Morrocans as our previous two experiences both ended in tears, firstly Hassan Kachloul refused to sign a new contract at the Dell and left under a cloud, although he then disapeared into obscurity, Tahar El Khalej wasnt a great asset to the club but was released from his contract after appealing to Rupert Lowe that he needed to return home to Morrocco for family reasons, only to sign for Charlton a week later.

Safri seemed to be from a slightly different mode giving three seasons each to both the Sky Blues and the Canaries, being a regular throughout both periods, it has to be said though his behaviour over the past week wont have endeared him to Norwich City supporters who previously rated him highly.