Southampton have completed the signing of Queens Park Rangers defender Steven Caulker on a season-long loan deal.
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Meanwhile Florin Gardos has recently been ruled out for over six months with a knee injury, forcing Southampton to move quickly in order to find defensive cover.
The centre-back will be looking to avoid a third straight relegation from the Premier League at Saints and to add to his sole England cap won three years ago.
“The 23-year-old defender has penned a season-long loan deal at St Mary’s, after Rangers accepted a substantial undisclosed loan fee for his services”, read a statement on QPR’s official website.
“For me at the moment, I am staying at QPR”, Caulker claimed at the beginning of July.
“As soon as I got the phone call to say a fee was agreed with Southampton, I was delighted to get the opportunity to come and play under a great manager“.
Southampton Executive Director of Football talked up the transfer, saying the club “have tracked Caulker for years” and that he is a player with “a good blend of experience and potential who is determined to grow and prove himself at the club.”
Caulker, who has already represented England at senior level, as well as Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics, was excited to join the ‘ambitious” club and to play for a “great’ manager in Ronald Koeman.
Koeman said: “I am very pleased”. As is the case with relegation, QPR are now having to count the financial costs and a host of their top players are expected to exit the club this summer. We have real competition in our squad.
“We are not in a hurry because we like to have the players what we like to have in the team and sometimes you need more time for that”.
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Sheesh, I even took the time to google how old Chiriches actually was when we signed him (24) and still typed the wrong age.
