CHARLIE Austin insists he will silence his critics by being prolific in front of goal for Saints.

Prior to his move to St Mary’s little under two weeks’ ago, Austin had been continually linked with clubs up and down the Premier League with seemingly no concrete offer on the table.

David Sullivan, the West Ham co-owner, revealed that the Irons dismissed signing him because of long-term injury problems – allegations that the 26-year-old forward strongly pushed back.

Then, when Austin made his move to Saints earlier this month, David Gold, another Boleyn Ground co-owner, made suggestions that the England striker’s wage demands were around £100,000-a-week.

Gold tweeted “is he a bargain if his wages are £100,000 per week?” in reply to a fan’s question over why West Ham hadn’t bought the striker at the apparent bargain £4m that Saints got him for from QPR.

Austin would rather let his football do the talking, though, and has already responded to his detractors by scoring a late winner at Manchester United.

He is now aiming to continue proving people wrong for Ronald Koeman’s side, starting against Arsenal tomorrow.

“I just let people do the talking,” he said. “I do what I can and I can only control the controllables and coming on the pitch and scoring the winner is something I can control.

“Everybody has got their opinion and they are entitled to their opinion. I just do what I can do and that’s that.”

He added: “I don’t know whether I was credited enough for what I did at QPR.

“Maybe that was just it but now I have come to a club like Southampton they are only going one way and I want to be part of that journey.

“How times change but that’s behind me now and I’m all about concentrating on Southampton and playing in the Premier League because this is where I want to be.”

Austin was called up to Roy Hodgson’s England team last May for two matches, but failed to make his debut.

Now he will wait and see if he comes back into contention for the Three Lions for Euro 2016.

“Not at all. I don’t think about that at all,” he said, when asked if he had England on his mind.

“I want to score as many goals as I can. The Euros are at the back of my mind. If it happens, it happens but at the moment I just want to continue performing for Southampton.”