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Southampton boss Nigel Adkins: New Japanese signing Tadanari Lee has 'immense talent'
The Samurai Blue striker could make his debut this weekend in the FA Cup after the paperwork was finally settled on his transfer to the Saints
By Ben Somerford
The 26-year-old, who scored the winning goal in the 2011 Asian Cup final in extra-time, joins Southampton from Sanfrecce Hiroshima on a two-and-a-half-year deal with the option for a further year.
Lee is now available to make his debut for the Championship club this Saturday against Millwall in the FA Cup.
"I am delighted to have secured the signing of Tadanari Lee. He is an international forward and a player with immense talent, who will add to our striking options," Adkins said in a club statement.
"He has a good attitude about him and possesses quality in the final third that will complement our other forwards. I'm very much looking forward to seeing him produce for the team.
"I have no doubts that he will settle in quickly because he has been made to feel very welcome by everyone at the club."
Lee said he was looking forward to making his debut for the club after the long process of obtaining a work permit and getting the paperwork done.
"I am very excited to join Southampton, it has been a long process, but I am now looking forward to joining my team-mates and playing football," he said.
"I feel good and ready, so will await the call from the manager on when I can put on the red and white shirt.
"I was made very welcome when I came to Southampton a few weeks ago, it is like a family here and everyone was very kind to me. I got such a warm feeling from being here because everyone is so friendly.
"I want to help the team to great things, we all want to get to the Premier League, and I am the same. I hope that I can show the fans that they can trust me to play my best for the club at all times."
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"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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