MARK Wotte believes the capture of Paul Wotton is another step in the right direction as Saints aim to blend youth and experience for the new Championship season.
An experienced spine to the team under Jan Poortvliet is quickly becoming clearer with the signings of centre half Chris Perry and defensive central midfielder Wotton.
Add to that the capture of exciting young winger Lee Holmes and it would seem Saints will aim for a solid base down the middle around which to play their youngsters in a possible 4-3-3 formation with the emphasis very much on attack.
"We are happy to have him aboard,"
said academy director Wotte, one of the new management team at St Mary's.
Watch a video interview of Paul Wotton and Mark Wotte - click here
"As I have discussed with Jan Poortvliet, the head coach, we will have a lot of young players but we also need some players that have seen it all before.
"We need strong characters on and off the field.
"It's very important that we have some players in the team that can be very strong at difficult times.
"We're very happy with Paul.
"We think he's a great character, a good holding midfielder who has shown his quality already for Plymouth and good from set-pieces, so we're happy to have him aboard."
He added: "We will have some young players with little or no experience at all, so we will have to blend it all together as a good team.
"You cannot play with 11 youngsters, that's not our goal, you have to make a good team.
"In fact it's not about age it's about quality and if the mentality and the quality is OK then I think we will have a strong team."
Wotton admitted that he is ready for a change.
The 30-year-old has spent his entire career at Plymouth, making over 400 appearances in 14 years, but was immediately attracted by a move to Saints.
"Look around at the training ground and the stadium and it's second to none," he said when asked why he had chosen Saints.
"There's the history of the club as well and I've got a young family so the area of Southampton as well to bring my children up in is a nice area.
See today's Daily Echo for the full story
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