Fraser Forster has become the fifth most expensive keeper in world football history after joining Saints from Celtic for £10m.

The 26-year-old England international has penned a four-year deal at St Mary’s and go straight into the side to face Liverpool at Anfield next Sunday.

Forster is not only Saints’ most expensive keeper of all time – beating the £2m they paid for Antti Niemi in 2002 – but now the most expensive British keeper in history.

The previous record was held by Craig Gordon, who joined Sunderland from Hearts in 2007 for £9m.

Ironically, Gordon will now take over from Forster at Celtic after arriving at Parkhead in the summer.

The only four keepers in history who have cost more than Forster are Gianluigi Buffon, David De Gea, Manuel Neuer and Angelo Peruzzi.

Saints have now splashed out almost £30m on three players this summer – Forster, Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle – and have options to buy loanees Ryan Bertrand and Saphir Taider permanently next summer.

Manager Ronald Koeman said of a player who was linked with Real Madrid and Barcelona earlier this year: “Fraser is a very talented player and we are delighted to be able to bring him to Southampton.

“This is another important part of our rebuilding process ahead of the start of the season.

“The fact that he has worked with Dave Watson before means we already know all about his strengths and weaknesses, and I am confident that we will be able to help him improve even further.

“Fraser is the perfect fit to help complement the players we already have, and he will add a lot of quality to the squad.

“He is an exciting English player with a very good reputation within the game and, at 26, he will enjoy the best years of his career at Southampton.”

Forster has worked with goalkeeping coach Watson with England, and was part of the squad for the finals in Brazil.

He started his career at Newcastle but never made a first team appearance for the Magpies, instead having loan spells at Stockport, Bristol Rovers and Norwich before moving to Celtic.

After a successful loan spell north of the border he joined Celtic permanently in 2012.

During his time with the Hoops he has won three Scottish league titles and two Scottish Cups.

Last season Forster broke the Scottish League record for most consecutive clean sheets, keeping 13 in a row.

He did not concede a league goal from the end of November through to mid February, a run of 1,256 minutes.

Forster was close to breaking Manchester United keeper Edwin van der Sar’s all time British recordof 1,311 minutes without conceding.

Forster’s signing inevitably sheds doubt on the future of another ex-Celtic keeper, Artur Boruc, who only has a year left remaining on his contract with Kelvin Davis ensconced as club captain and youngster Paulo Gazzaniga developing in the background.