According to media reports Mark Hughes has already had some initial discussions with the Saints board about extending his stay at St Mary's.

The Daily Mail are reporting that Mark Hughes has already spoken to the club about staying on after the end of this season,given that the same paper was the source of the leak that Saints had been turned away from the Swansea Marriott you have to assume that a member of their sports department is close to someone within the hierarchy at St Mary's.

Although safety is not yet mathematically done and dusted it is understood that Hughes met with the Saints hierarchy last week and indicated he would like to talk formally about staying even if the club were to go down.

Hughes who was part of the Great Escape Saints team of 1999 and his key staff arrived in Southampton with an open mind after being appointed almost two months ago. Since then the 54-year-old has been living in a hotel in the city as he concentrated on trying to turn the club's fortunes around.

Even before the big win in at Swansea, Hughes had decided he was impressed with the structure and potential of the club and would be prepared to talk about staying.

These talks are only at an early stage at the moment and salary details are yet to be discussed although it seems that Hughes will insist on full-time deals for coaches Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki which should not be a problem for Saints.

How accurate this story is, will be discovered in the coming weeks and whether it is merely either the club or Hughes himself jostling to make their position clear.

Certainly the club will be breathing a sigh of relief this week if Saints complete the job on Sunday and after the issues surrounding Mauricio Pellegrino they will be eager to show the supporters that they have learned their lessons and are now acting swiftly and decisively moving forward.

Photo: Action Images

arfurdent added 15:37 - May 9 so will the hotel is staying in have a virus outbreak?
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helpineedsomebody added 15:46 - May 9 it would be impossible not to offer him the job after what he & his staff have done
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SanMarco added 16:35 - May 9 I quite like Hughes and while helpineedsomebody's "impossible" is a bit strong I would have thought he must be a strong contender. It depends what we want - he is clearly more at home with the grafters than the fancy-dan Boufal types. Would he get us playing the entertaining, attacking football we want? Probably not but then nor did the last two. It is the transfer strategy that is every bit as important as who the actual manager is. But for now who cares - we won and we are staying up !!!

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FARESAINT added 17:59 - May 9 i heard Wenger was desperate to jump onboard :-)
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ChristchurchSaint added 18:57 - May 9 Lucky there is not a Marriott in the city.......
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AirFlorida added 09:06 - May 10 Managers have a sell by date as Stoke found out. I would welcome him for at least a season on the basis that he has created some momentum and gelled the players-many of the players actually saying they want him to stay (perhaps the players fearing for their future under someone else!). I guess it's how he deals with the bad apples (ie Boufal) and when he starts to bring in his own players. If we stay up, it's a bonus season in the Prem so let's hope we embrace it and have a go at teams.

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saintmark1976 added 11:41 - May 10 I'm ambivalent as to whether Mr Hughes is offered the job or not. Of more importance to me is that the existing board appears to retain authority to even discuss the matter with him. Finishing one place above the relegation zone on goal difference (as may well be the case by Sunday tea time) is testament to abject failure by the board. It is they that need to go in recognition of their total inability to correctly manage a club with the ninth biggest income stream in the Premier league.

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Jesus_02 added 10:40 - May 11 I think that the growth of the club is all about momentum... unfortunately that has long gone when the majority of the key players in the team where sold twice and MoPo left because of lack of ambition, Koeman was undermined and we appointed two incredibly negative managers. We need to start again.. Hughes seems like a reasonable place to do that although personally the bloated board might need a review also

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