There looks to be another couple of appointments to the coaching staff under Ronald Koeman in the next day or so.

According to press reports Saints are set to announce the arrival of two new assets to the Saints coaching staff,

The first is ex Saints player Sammy Lee, although the club itself has not confirmed he will be appointed Brighton have issued a statement saying that after initially accepting the job as Sami Hyypia's assistant at the Amex, a day later he retracted his acceptance and told The Seagull's that he would prefer to join Saints, the Sussex club behaved with impeccable good grace and despite the fact they could impose a notice period released him immediately.

Lee whose best playing days were spent at Anfield where he won three league titles and two European Cups as well as 14 England caps before joining firstly QPR and then Osasuna in Spain arrived at the Dell on a free transfer in January 1990 a few days shy of his 32nd birthday, however his time under Chris Nicholl was not successful, he never made a start at the Club, although ironically of his 3 sub appearances 2 came against old clubs, QPR for his final League game and at old stomping ground Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Since then Lee has held several high profile coaching positions, including a long stint on the staff at Anfield, followed by spells in the England set up both full time and temporary, in September 2005 he joined Bolton as Sam Allardyce's assistant followed by a return to Liverpool & Bolton.

The other possible arrival is Norwich goalkeeping coach David Watson, not of course the ex Saints who won many caps for England in the 70/80's, nor the Norwich and Everton defender of the same name.

This one played in goal for Barnsley during the 1990's before starting a career in goalkeeper coaching that took in a number of lower league teams before joining Birmingham City where he was credited with the development of Jack Butland, Ben Foster & Joe Hart all of whom had spells at St Andrew's during his time there.

This prompted Roy Hodgson to invite him to work with the England keepers at Euro 2012 followed by his joining Chris Hughton at Norwich in July 2012.

If both these men are appointed it shows that the board are thinking carefully about the backroom staff, instead of just letting Ronald Koeman select all the staff, as was the case under Mauricio Pochettino with the end effect that when the manager left all of the staff went with him, Saints are picking staff who have no ties to the manager and will therefore theoretically stay at the club when the manager leaves bringing continuity and stability.

This is of course nothing new at Saints, indeed as far back as the appointment of Glenn Hoddle in 2000 this was the aim of Rupert Lowe who had been concerned about mass coaching defections after the departure of Graeme Souness, initially this was the game plan of Nicola Cortese, to have a backroom staff independent of the manager for the same reason, but when he appointed Mauricio Pochettino this blueprint was torn up and just the thing we sought to avoid happened when Pochetinno left for Spurs.

The arrival of Lee and Watson though will have another effect, both have experience of working in England and the Premier League, something that the Koeman brothers and their staff do not have and the advice, especially from Sammy Lee could be invaluable in initiating them into the Premier League ways of work.

These are rocky times at St Mary's for obvious reasons, but we should not be afraid of change, sometimes it is for the better, comparisons can be drawn with Glenn Hoddle's departure in 2001, however Saints bounced back stronger than ever, it is never about what has happened, it is always about what happen's next.

Photo: Action Images

lockseaf77 added 10:20 - Jun 30 Very fair and informed comment
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1962saint added 11:24 - Jun 30 Although Little Sam may prove to be a good appointment for Saints I think the way he treated Brighton is very shabby. Another example of the low standard of ethics in football today. It should give the pre season game at the Amex a bit more spice.
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Whatsforpud added 19:27 - Jun 30 Wonder if Kelvin Davis was hoping for the goalkeeper coaching role. Not sure where he will fit in now. I expect them to loan out Gazzaniga, and get in someone to challenge Boruc.
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pintsizedsaint added 23:36 - Jun 30 Reports are gathering now about an £8 million bid for Graziano Pelle and £10m for Dustan Tadic. Both look exciting. Tadic in particular looks a like for like swap for Lallana. Except Tadic scores more goals! These are interesting times..
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