Saints second choice goalkeeper Bart Bialkowski has told the Daily Echo in an interview that he is due to return to Saints in the next week for pre season training and he is then hopeful of signing a contract offer on the table
Bialkowski who turns 23 in July has made 20 league starts for Saints plus assorted cup appearances in his 4 1/2 years at the Club and despite interest from Clubs in the german Bundesliga he feels that Southampton is his best option.
Certainly from Saints point of view it will be good to know that they have a keeper of the required standard on the bench, under george burley Bialkowski was marginalised with the end result that Kelvin Davis was under no pressure for his place and to be blunt was not putting in displays of a decent quality.
Last season the first half of Kelvin's season was not up to the standard of the previous, however when Bart came on as sub against Hartlepool and in the subsequent games he played showed that he was now getting back to his best, it again put pressure on Kelvin pushing him to perhaps his best form at the club, this being the case its imperative that Saints have a keeper capable of taking over from Kelvin to keep the current number 1 on his toes.
However in the medium term Bart will hope to oust Kelvin from the top spot and make it his own, Davis is 34 in September and does have a few years ahead of him, but Bialkowski will surely feel that in the next year or so he can take over the jersey and show the Club that he is the best long term option.
However it all pans out it can only be good that Saints have two quality keepers pushing to be first choice.