Southampton confirm arrival of Florin Gardos from Steaua Bucuresti

Southampton have announced their second signing of the day in the form of Romanian defender Florin Gardos from Steaua Bucuresti.

The 25-year-old was targeted as a direct replacement for Dejan Lovren, who joined Liverpool for a reported £20m fee earlier this summer.

The centre-back has signed a long-term contract, which runs until 2018, and will join striker Shane Long, who was also confirmed as a Southampton player today.

"This is one of the happiest days of my life. It's the biggest step of my career so far," Gardos told the club's official website.

"Coming to the Premier League is a very big occasion for me, and Southampton was a team that had a really good last season so this wasn't really a hard decision."

Manager Ronald Koeman added:,"I am very happy to have Florin here. He's still a young player so he can develop himself a lot more, and that's part of the ambition of Southampton.

"From the beginning, after Lovren left the club, we paid a lot of attention to Florin. Everybody knows the big names and the big players, but it's always more difficult to find one who's not so well known. The information the club has given to me about him has been very good."

Southampton have signed seven players so far this summer following the departures of Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers and Lovren.