Saints are said to be chasing Joe Savage currently at Preston North End as they look to replace the now departed Ross Wilson.

Saints are looking to appoint Joe Savage of Preston North End as their new Director Of Football/Head of recruitment as they bid to restructure the backroom staff at the club.

Savage played lower league football in Scotland for Stenhousemuir, Arbroath, East Stirling and Berwick Rangers, before retiring as a player at the age of 27.

Savage then joined-up with AlexNeil at Hamilton as a games analyst and then followed him to Norwich where he was chief scout, before they both moved to Preston in the summer of 2017.

North End have one of the smallest budgets in the Sky Bet Championship but are second in the table, two points behind leaders West Brom and Savage's work has not gone unnoticed.

Whether Savage is the man Saints want for the job is still to be decided, what is for sure though is that Saints need to make this appointment fast and it needs to be the right one, with the January transfer window looming they need someone who knows what they are doing in the transfer market and player recruitment and no one on the board has that sort of experience.

Photo: Action Images

dirk_doone added 11:08 - Nov 7 "North End have one of the smallest budgets in the Sky Bet Championship" This is obviously what attracted our owners: someone who can accept working with the smallest transfer budget in the league.
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Saint4Life247 added 11:55 - Nov 7 dirk_doone.... That was exactly what I first thought when I read the article but I will remain confident (delusional) that its for the right reasons rather than budgetary appeal I know very little of him but if he is a serious contender, then I hope we unearth a real gem with great footballing knowledge and know how for the required role. These sort of appointments tend to go under the radar until they are finally announced, so we'll see. We just need to get the right people in and make sure they are a good fit (sooner rather than later). We are becoming seriously understaffed in all the wrong areas. Just hope what ever happens it reduces the workload and pressure on RH and things settle down

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bstokesaint added 12:41 - Nov 7 Another hugely underwhelming appointment update. Being "a sustainable club" is so rock n roll.
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SonicBoom added 13:00 - Nov 7 Who do we expect? We won't nick someone from a bigger club. If we recruit someone who used to be somewhere bigger, we'd all moan that he's past it now. We need someone ambitious and hungry who will put in long hours scouring the leagues. He may also know some gems, they do exist. This guy sounds like he's doing a good job and will obviously want to move on up.
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Saintsforeverj added 13:05 - Nov 7 He won't be coming. Saints can't afford the compensation. Seriously - he's not coming.
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arfurdent added 14:35 - Nov 7 No he is not https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/18020911.southampton-not-looking-appoint-joe-s
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underweststand added 16:21 - Nov 8 well that's another rumour we can forget about, then.
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