Having lost five key players over a summer selling spree, Southampton have earned a cool £92 million in spending money and, with the Premier League season about to kick off this weekend, it seems that they are finally feeling the pressure to start re-investing that cash in building up a new squad. Last Friday saw the announcement of the £10 million signing of Celtic and England goalkeeper Fraser Forster and today Saints have added two more players to their still slender squad for a combined cost of £18 million. Hull City striker Shane Long and Steaua Bucharest defender Florin Gardos join Forster, Graziano Pelle, Dusan Tadic, and Saphir Taider as new additions to this season's Saints squad. Long, whose undisclosed transfer fee is believed to be around £12 million, had only joined the Tigers from West Brom in the January transfer window for £6 million, so it is a little surprising that in the space of seven months and just four goals the Irish international forward has doubled in value. Manager Ronald Koeman compared Long to his other new striker Graziano Pelle, suggesting Pelle has been signed to score the goals and Long because he is a team player: "As a striker, he's different to Graziano Pelle, which is something we needed. He brings ambition and a great mentality - he's always running and always working, and he's very down to earth. He's a great person and we need that kind of player." Long, for his part, admitted that the move came as much as a surprise for him as it did for many observers who had not linked the South coast club with a move for the former Reading and West Brom man: "This came out of the blue for me but, once I'd come and had a look at the training facilities and met the manager, it seemed like the right decision for me and my family." Gardos, who played for Steaua against Chelsea in last season's Champions League, prefers to be used as a centre back, but is equally happy in defensive midfield, giving Southampton options. At 6 foot 4 inches he is a commanding defensive presence, naturally strong in the air but also content to play with the ball at his feet. He currently features in the Romanian national team where he has formed a defensive partnership with Tottenham's Vlad Chiriches, picking up 12 caps. At 25 he was looking for a new challenge in moving from the Romanian champions to a bigger league and called the move "a dream come true". "It's the biggest step of my career so far," Gardos told the press, "Coming to the Premier League is a very big occasion for me, and Southampton was a team that had a very good last season so this wasn't really a hard decision". The Romanian has signed a four year deal with Koeman commenting: "He's still a young player so he can develop himself a lot more, and that's part of the ambition for Southampton...For now and for the future we have a very good central defender". With the departure of last season's key centre back Dejan Lovren for Liverpool, it is the "for now" part that will mostly concern Saints fans with many hoping that Gardos' adjustment to English football is a quick one. Both players will hope to feature in Sunday's trip to Anfield to face a number of ex-Saints now on the books at Liverpool, but they do not represent the end of Saints' signing ambitions. With the likes of Morgan Schneiderlin still looking to leave, there will likely be a few more arrivals before the transfer window closes and the latest rumours suggest England winger Andros Townsend may be on his way to St. Mary's if forward Jay Rodriguez goes the other way and joins Tottenham. source - teamtalk
