MIDFIELDER Joe Aribo insisted he wants to win acknowledgement as a "very good" Premier League footballer with Saints this season.

Aribo, 28, has taken an unorthodox path to the top flight, first running out for non-league Staines Town as an 18 year old university student.

South London born, playing his youth football in the cages with the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi, Aribo won a move to Charlton Athletic in 2015.

Aribo signed for Saints in 2022 for £10million, after scoring in the Europa League final at Rangers, but suffered relegation in his first season.

Having been in and out of the team under three managers, it then took Aribo until December to land a spot under Russell Martin - but he is now key.

"I want to mark my stamp as a Premier League footballer, that’s a dream of mine," said Aribo, reflecting on his current ambitions. 

"I just want to be acknowledged or be known as a very good player really, nothing too crazy, but I know what I am capable of.

"I know what abilities I have and my purpose I believe is to showcase them for the world to see," the Nigerian international added. 

"The relegation was a difficult season for me and I had my ups and downs when I wasn’t playing, but you have to learn from it.

"Nobody’s career is going to keep soaring upwards and you have to go through a phase of being humble, and I think that’s what it does.

"It realigns your goals and where you want to get to. Disappointment is a part of life and it took a long season to get here.

"Our goal was to be back in the Premier League, we did it the hard way going to Wembley but we did it and we’re back again."

Aribo, who has kept the same friends from childhood, credits his parents for his calm demeanour - both on and off the pitch. 

He says his mother and father moved to England from Nigeria to provide their future family with better opportunities - although not necessarily football. 

"My parents are a big factor in who I am. I am a relaxed, calm and easy-going person, which is my dad to a tee, and that’s me," said Aribo.

"He looks really scary, a lot of my friends would say when I was younger, be he is really calm and cool.

"Them being from Nigeria and moving here, they didn’t really understand football and what it could do but they supported me.

"They would be busy with work and as a pastor, my Dad would be at church on Sundays when I would go there.

"For me, it was a drive of mine to make sure that I could go and get it. I’m not just doing this for myself, I wanted to give back to my family."