So after months of trying, Southampton finally get their man as Burnley striker Jay Rodriguez puts pen to paper on a four year deal.

Although the club has decided to keep the official cost of the transfer under wraps, as seems to be the case with most of our transfers since Nicola Cortese came to the helm, it is rumoured to be a club record of £7 million.

This is a figure that smashes the record that has stood for a depressing eleven years when the club paid £4 million back in 2001 for Rory Delap (I know I keep going on about it but, even now as I type it, I still can’t believe we paid that much for Delap).

We reportedly fought off competition from fellow Premier League sides Everton, Wigan and Aston Villa to sign a player that we first tried to sign back in the January transfer window before Billy Sharp arrived.

So what does £7 million get you striker wise these days?

Well for a start he is young, so with the right coaching and the world class training facilities we can offer, he can certainly expect quite a few years at the top.

Plus from what I have seen, he is a striker in the Alan Shearer mould, as he puts himself about up-front and is just as proficient with his head as he is with the boot. He was fairly prolific last season scoring 21 goals, which in itself is a good haul, but that tally becomes even more impressive when you add in the fact that he was playing for a fairly mediocre Burnley side.

He can certainly expect to enhance his career whilst on the south coast, and I would not be surprised to see him wearing an England shirt in the next few years.

However, does this signing signify a big summer spending spree by the Saints?

After all we are not short of striking options, with the prolific Ricky Lambert being joined by Billy Sharp who we signed in January. Add to that list the Japanese forward Tadanari Lee and, all of a sudden, we have a plethora of goal scoring talent all vying for a starting place.

There is, obviously, going to be more signings to come and I would not be surprised to see some more big fees being paid out, although whether they will be in the region of £7 million remains to be seen and the big question is just how much has this fee for Jay Rod taken out of our transfer budget?

[ad_pod id='writer-1' align='right']