PLANS to put up a memorial to honour Saints legend Ted Bates look set to be backed by Southampton leisure chiefs today.

But it looks unlikely any statue will be erected at St Mary's.

And the City Council will NOT be putting their hands in their pockets to pay for a permanent site to honour one of Southampton Football Club's all-time-greats.

Instead, city leisure bosses will be looking for developers at West Quay Stage Three or at one of the other flagship schemes which are scheduled to be built in the city - such as the arts quarter at Northern Above Bar or Town Quay - to stump up the cash.

An alternative would be to set up some sort of fund whereby fans or businesses could contribute cash towards the erection of a statue.

The move is being spearheaded by members of the True Saints Association and is likely to receive all-party support at the council.

TSA chairman Steve Godwin said: "At this moment in time we would like to work with Saints with regards to any plans they have to honour Ted.

"But if they don't want to do anything we will have no qualms about doing something ourselves.

"I've no idea why Saints haven't done something yet - it would be a public relations exercise that would only reflect well on the club."

Ugly Inside webzine editor Nick Illingsworth added: "In simplistic terms, Southampton Football Club, since they moved to St Mary's, have never really honoured their past achievements.

"They have not even got a replica of the FA Cup.

"The club say they have named a suite after Ted in the corporate areas but, to be honest, the average supporter does not see that."

City Council deputy leader and cabinet member for tourism and leisure Councillor Peter Wakeford also expressed his "disappointment" that Saints had not erected a permanent memorial to Bates.

He said: "My personal perspective as a life-long Sotonian and Southampton fan is that Ted Bates did a tremendous amount of work for the city.

"I was involved in bringing forward the motion to council to give him the Freedom of the City.

"The city council unanimously supported that proposal and on that basis a memorial is long overdue."

Saints managing director Andrew Cowen said the club was not able to put up a memorial outside St Mary's because of access problems.

He added that the club had named a suite after Mr Bates and a cup after the legend, who died aged 85 last December.

Cowen said: "To say that the club have no interest in preserving Ted's memory is simply not true."

But fans were angry last August when the trophy was awarded after Saints' pre-season friendly win against Chievo Verona - despite no pre-publicity saying the cup was to be played for.

Bates served an unbroken 66 years at Saints as a player, manager and finally as club president.

He was manager between 1955 and 1973, guiding Saints to the top flight of English football for the first time in the club's history in 1966.