MORGAN Schneiderlin has completed his £25m move from Southampton to Manchester United.

The French midfielder joins the Salford side after seven years at St Mary's, the club confirmed on their Twitter account.

He trained with his new team mates this morning and will now join them on a pre-season tour of the USA.

Schneiderlin said: "I am delighted to be a Manchester United player. Once I learned that United were interested in signing me, it was a very easy decision to make.

"I have enjoyed seven very happy years with Southampton and it’s a club that will always be in my heart. But the chance to be part of this squad to help this great club be successful was too good to miss.

"I’m excited to be starting that journey on our trip to the USA. I know what Manchester United means to fans all over the world and I’m looking forward to experiencing that."

Louis van Gaal made the international one of his top targets, although Saints did originally reject a £20m a few weeks ago.

• Morgan Schneiderlin's Southampton career - in pictures >>

Over the weekend however, Man United returned with an offer much closer to Saints' £27m valuation of the player.

Last year, Schneiderlin stayed at St Mary's despite trying to engineer a move to Tottenham Hotspur, after Saints said they would not let him leave.

As a result, the club promised they would not stand in his way this summer if a Champions League club matched their valuation.

 

Schneiderlin joined Southampton in 2008 for a fee of £1.2m from Strasbourg. Saints were in the Championship at the time and subsquently were relegated to League 1.

Since then, Schneiderlin has been an integral part of the team that rose from bottom of the third tier to European competition.

Saints are close to securing the signing of Dutchman Jordi Clasie to replace Schneiderlin in midfield.

Les Reed said: “Morgan leaves with our sincere appreciation for his service across the past seven years.

“We are under way with our plans to strengthen our midfield ­– both with players from our academy and outside the club.”