Saints were today set to unveil plans to build an £80,000 memorial statue of the late, great Ted Bates - the club's legendary former player, manager, director and president.

The True Saints Association has already set up the Ted Bates Trust after Southampton City Council revealed that, in principle, there would be no planning objection to a statue outside St Mary's.

And at a midday press conference today, the club were set to confirm plans to honour Bates, pictured below, who served the club for 65 years after joining in 1937, before dying in November last year at the age of 85.

A Daily Echo poll in October revealed that 76 per cent of Saints fans believe that a bronze statue is the best way to remember Mr Southampton and the TSA is aiming to raise £40,000, after the club offered to match any sum raised by the Ted Bates Trust.

Three months ago all parties at a council meeting passed a motion unanimously supporting the idea of a bronze statue of Bates, with St Mary's the preferred choice of Saints fans. Now supporters' groups are hopeful that a Ted Bates statue will be unveiled before the Ted Bates challenge match, a pre-season friendly in August.

Several other football clubs have statues of former greats outside their stadiums. Charlton and Sunderland are currently raising money for statues of Sam Bartram and Bob Stokoe respectively, and Saints are now following the lead of fellow Premiership clubs like Liverpool (Bill Shankly), Everton (Dixie Dean) and Blackburn (Jack Walker), who have all immortalised figureheads in bronze.

The Morris Singer Foundry in Lasham, near Alton, has already offered Saints its services.

The Hampshire firm is the oldest established arts foundry in the world with a reputation for casting some of the most famous monuments of sporting greats. It has cast statues of Sir Matt Busby at Old Trafford, the World Cup champions statue at West Ham and the Jackie Milburn statue at Newcastle and is currently working on the Battle of Britain monument that will be unveiled in London in the spring.

And it has even offered a sizeable donation to the appeal fund

Chief executive Sharon Pink said: "We would be delighted to help with ideas for fund raising. We provide a full service that covers every aspect of statue development, from advising on the choice of sculptor and design, and carrying out the development, bronze casting, siting and installation of the statue. We can also advise on and assist with public fundraising and promotional activities where appropriate."

Warsash-based Ian Brennan is the sculptor expected to be handed the task of creating the statue. Brennan is the official sculptor to the Royal Family, but there are other options.

The world renowned sculptor Philip Jackson is based in Chichester and has been commissioned by the Portsmouth Supporters Advisory Panel to sculpt a life-size statue of Milan Mandaric.

And Nottingham-based Neale Andrew could be another candidate, having had the experience of recreating bronze statues of Gary Lineker, Mike Tyson, Harold Larwood, Geoff Boycott and, most recently, Sir Steven Redgrave.