Les Reed says contract negotiations with Manchester United target Nathaniel Clyne are in "a very good place" and he is confident of a resolution soon.

Saints' executive director of football revealed positive talks have started up with Clyne's new agents, after he recently switched from previous representative Dan Wilson to the Wasserman Media Group.

And Reed is hopeful that Clyne will soon follow teammate Jay Rodriguez in committing his future to the club.

"With Clyney it’s been the same as with Jay, we’ve been talking for quite a while," said Reed in an interview with the club.

"It gets fed by speculation, which doesn’t help.

"Ronald [Koeman] made a comment that there was a deadline. That deadline was more about getting a response, and that issue has been solved by the fact Nathaniel has changed his agent. We got an immediate response from his new agent.

"That’s not our business, but there was something there slowing things down. That’s all accelerated, I’m in discussions with his agent and those have been very positive.

"Nathaniel has already made statements that he’s happy here. There’s bound to be speculation because he’s such a good player and has had such a good season so we have to balance that against what he can do for us in the future and what we can do for him.

"We’re at a very good place at the moment in terms of discussions going on and I’m confident again that we will have a resolution to that sooner rather than later."

Clyne himself told the Daily Echo earlier this month that he would be happy to stay with Saints beyond this season.