Hughes in talks to stay on if Saints seal safety

Southampton plan to open negotiations with Mark Hughes next week over a permanent contract of up to three years, provided they can guarantee their Premier League survival in Sunday’s last game

against Manchester City. Hughes has impressed the club’s board and all three members – chairman Ralph Krueger and vice-chairmen Les Reed and Martin Semmens – were at the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday night to see the team win a crucial relegation match against Swansea City.

Also there was Nelly Gao, daughter of Gao Jisheng, who bought 80 per cent of the club for £210million in August from Katharina Liebherr.

Nelly Gao will be the next figurehead of the club’s ownership, rather than her father, although she will leave the decision over the future of the next manager to the board and senior staff. They have been impressed by how quickly the players have taken to Hughes and his staff of Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki, and they feel that was reflected

in Tuesday’s performance in a game the club had to win.

Southampton prefer to give three-year contracts to managers, although it will be a matter of deciding the right deal once survival is ensured. There are no alternatives to Hughes under consideration and he stands to earn a bonus of around £1million if he can secure safety. The club have three more points than Swansea and a goal difference that is nine superior.

Despite the recent criticism of their transfer policy, with the big sales of Virgil van Dijk in January and Sadio Mane and Victor Wanyama in the summer of 2016, Southampton believe that their sure-footedness in the market has not eluded them. They believe the £5.4million paid for defender Jan Bednarek from Lech Poznan in the Southampton left a damning one-star review of the Swansea Marriott on Tripadvisor after the hotel cancelled their booking before Tuesday’s