It has been officially announced that Matt Targett has joined Aston Villa after 15 years at St Mary's after joining Saints as an 8 year old.
Matt Targett has joined Aston Villa for a fee said to be in the region of £15 million and should leave with the best wishes of Saints fans ringing in his ears.
Indeed it is a decent fee for the full back and good business for Saints in a position that they are still strong in even after his departure, there can be no criticism at the club over the way they have handled this one
Targett was a decent player and made his first team debut under Ronald Koeman in 2014/15 and looked to be one for the future even at a tender age.
However his second season under Koeman although paying a lot of games saw him fall out of favour with talk of Koeman being harsh on the youngster and knocking his confidence.
Injury didn't help and his third season as a first team player saw him miss most of it injured.
In 2017/18 he went out on loan to Fulham and started to truly look like the player he had promised to be in 2014, last season he let no one down and as his fee and the number of clubs chasing him testify, some Saints fans might underrate him but others away from St Mary's do.
Matt Targett has suffered plenty of bad luck during the last 5 years that restricted his Premier League appearances to just 36 starts plus another 7 as sub, but perhaps his worst luck is now, at 23, turning 24 in September he needs game time, but for this season at least he is not quite as good as Ryan Bertrand, so would face at least one more season as mainly back up.
Add to that he is not the type of player that Ralph Hasenhuttl is looking for, Targett is more a traditional left back, a good reader of the game and a terrific passer of the ball, but Ralph looks for more pace along the flanks from his full backs and Targett hasn't quite got the engine to get up and down for the entire 90 minutes.
That is not a slur on him, just a fact of nature, Matt will find his niche in the right formation in the Premier League and I would not be surprised if he went on to win an England cap.
Perhaps we might rue selling him, but sadly he is in the wrong place at the wrong time for his career at St Mary's and with both Bertrand and highly rated academy left back Jake Vokins coming through this is a transfer that perhaps player and club did not truly want, but both knew had to happen.
So good luck Matt Targett in your new start at Aston Villa.