HEAD COACH Steve Wigley is confident James Beattie has "cleared his mind" and will stay at Saints.

The transfer window deadline for all Premiership clubs closes tomorrow afternoon.

And after a hectic summer of speculation regarding Beattie's future, Wigley was expecting the England striker to remain at St Mary's.

After Aston Villa's interest in Beattie ended after they failed to up their recent £6m offer, it seemed certain that Beattie would stay a Saint.

But there were fresh concerns after a weekend, which saw Beattie score the fourth fastest goal in Premiership history in just 12 seconds at Chelsea, when it emerged that Everton were considering a £7m bid to try and beat tomorrow's deadline once they have finalised their £25m sale of Wayne Rooney.

But Wigley was unconcerned and said that Beattie, who was understood to be keen on a transfer a few weeks ago, had "cleared his mind."

Wigley, speaking after his side's 2-1 loss at Stamford Bridge, said: "We have not had a bid from Everton and it would take a lot more than £6m to get James Beattie. He is a special player who scores more goals than most English players and he does not get enough credit for that.

"Look at his goal record. He is one of the best strikers in England and has been beaten only by Michael Owen and Alan Shearer in the English goalscoring stakes recently

"We don't want to sell him and I am confident he will still be here when the window closes. He has cleared his mind and we are happy to have him.

"But I will be glad to see the window close provided he is still here and we have brought in another player too."

Beattie, whose spectacular early effort couldn't prevent Saints slipping to their third defeat in the opening four games of the season, said: "I'll just let people talk and I'll just get on with playing football.

"There are a lot of people out there who are good at talking, so let them."

When asked if he would be happy to stay at Saints, he added: "Of course I'll be happy. It's a situation I don't need to comment on."

Saints now face a rush to make their own signing before tomorrow's deadline. Wigley would only say he was "confident" the deal would be completed.