It's been on the cards for a few days now, but Fulham have now confirmed that they have completed the signing of Shea Charles from Saints, a shame to see him go, but the hefty fee will help a lot in the last weeks of the transfer window.

Southampton have also confirmed that Shea Charles has now left the club and joined Fulham.

They have not confirmed the fee but sources in West London are saying that it is £26 million plus add ons that will push up the fee to £30 million if conditions are met.

Charles has signed a 5 year deal with the option of an extra year.

He will be a loss to the club, injury restricted him to just 21 starts plus another 10 sub appearances in the regular Championship season, scoring 3 goals plus 2 assists.

In the play offs he came onas a sub at Middlesbrough and at St Mary's played the full 120 minutes scoring what turned out to be the winner in the game, but not the goal that took us to Wembley.

I liked Shea Charles as a player from the first game I saw him in, but I always thought he was under appreciated by a succession of managers and also some sections of our support.

Two years ago when he was loaned out to Sheffield Wednesday for the season there were few who lamented his departure and even last season, although he started every game under Will Still before being injured up at Blackburn, when he returned to the squad in January under Tonda Eckert, he struggled for game time.

Obviously Saints had a strong centre of midfield and perhaps rotation was necessary, I always felt that he wasn't used as much as he could have been until the final run in.

You can only judge whether a player was a good signing when he leaves the club, so on judging Charles, we have to evaluate his 2 playing seasons at the club.

In the first under Russell Martin he was an inexperienced 19 year old, he started 15 games plus another 17 as sub, but near the end of the season he seemed to fall out of favour with Russell Martin and sat on the bench a lot without getting off it.

Indeed in the 3 play off games he would play just 1 minute, running down the clock in the 3-1 home win in the semi against West Brom.

But that should not detract from the part he played earlier in the season.

Last season he played a big part in what would surely have been a promotion season and perhaps if we had gone up he would be staying at the club.

That however did not happen and with Charles being in big demand it was clear from the start of pre season that he would not be here by the end of the transfer window.

From the club's perspective it is good that we have got the business done early and it is good business.

Signed for around £9 million, Saints have now made around £17 million profit, although it is likely that we will have to pay around £2.5 million to Manchester City due to a sell on clause.

That is good business and the hope is that we still have a strong midfield even if we dont make another signing in that position.

So good luck Shea Charles for the future.

All Photos Via Reuters

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