Saints Sign Steven Davis
Posted on: Sat 07 Jul 2012
The Northern Ireland captain Steven Davis has signed a three-year contract with Saints.
The midfielder becomes Saints' second summer signing following on from the arrival of striker Jay Rodriguez last month.
Davis is a player with a vast top-flight experience having previously played for both Fulham and Aston Villa in the Barclays Premier League, before becoming captain of Scottish giants Rangers.
At 27 years of age, he already has over 250 professional games to his name and a collection of domestic honours including the SPL title and two Scottish Cups.
During his time in the SPL, the one-time Youth Cup winner with Aston Villa also lined up against current Saints stars Danny Fox and Jos Hooiveld on separate occasions in the Old Firm derby.
In fact he is no stranger to St Mary's either, having scored a winner here for Villa in a 3-2 success in April 2005.
Steven was voted by his fellow professionals north of the border as the Scottish Players' Player of the Year in 2010 - the only Rangers player in seven years to land the prize.
On the international stage, Davis was handed the captaincy of the Northern Ireland team earlier this year by new manager Michael O'Neill, taking over the honour from former Fulham and Villa teammate Aaron Hughes.
Davis returns to England four years on from his move to Ibrox looking to build on his 113 Premier League appearances to date.
Steven Davis said:I'm delighted to get everything done and dusted, and I'm looking forward to getting started. There was quite a bit of interest in me from other clubs but, after speaking to the chairman and the manager, I saw the level of ambition the Club has shown.
They've had a lot of success over the past couple of years to get to this stage, and they don't want to stand still - they want to keep moving forward, and that was a big thing for me.
Now I'm just looking forward to getting down, getting to know the boys and getting started.
Nigel Adkins commented:It's very good and I'm very pleased.
Obviously the work the Club has gone and done to make it happen is really promising for the future. Steven's an experienced player - a very talented football player who has played international football, captained his country, captained Rangers, and played in the Premier League, so he's at a good age and comes with a wealth of experience as well.
We work very hard behind the scenes and we're delighted that the Football Club has managed to secure his services.
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