There was expected to be business done between St Mary's & Ibrox in January with Cameron Archer moving to the Glasgow giants. However that didn't happen but there has been movement.

footballleagueworld.co.uk are amongst those reporting that Rangers U19 head coach Liam Ross is heading South to St Mary's to join Southampton.

They say at the moment that it is unclear just what role Ross will undertake, after Tonda Eckert and some of his coaching staff moved up from the U21 set up to the first team back in October, there has been a re-shuffle in the entire Saints coaching set up.

Adam Lallana heads up the U21 with Mathew Etherington as his assistant and Andrew Surman heads up the U18's

Looking at his CV it is unlikely it will be in the senior squad, his background is in youth coaching, where after joining Dundee United in 2017, he worked his way up the ladder before leaving in January 2023 to join Swansea City where ironically he would have worked with Russell Martin for a six month period before Martin joined Saints in the summer of that year, their paths would cross again briefly earlier this season.

After 18 months at Swansea City he would return to Scotland and join Rangers and in September 2025 he would also work as an assistant coach with the Scotland U21 squad.

Now it seems he will join Saints as it seems that under Johannes Spors the club are trying to put a solid coaching structure in place from the academy side up to the first team.

This of course is not the first time that Sport Republic have tried to do this back in 2022 they appointed Joe Shields who lasted 3 months before being headhunted by Chelsea and in 2023 came Jason Wilcox who set about the task of re shaping the club before he too was headhunted, this time Manchester United the destination.

After a period of flux it now seems that under Johannes Spors the proper foundations for long term stability are now being put in place, hopefully we will start to see the fruits of those in the coming months and years.

All Photos Via Reuters