WORLD CUP winner Alan Ball has pleaded with Saints chairman Rupert Lowe: Don't bring a foreign coach to St Mary's.

The ex-Saints boss, pictured above, was speaking out after speculation continued that Lowe could break with tradition and appoint the club's first-ever foreign boss.

French pair Philippe Troussier and Bruno Metsu - who managed Japan and Senegal with success in the last World Cup - have been strongly backed on internet bookmakers sites.

And another Frenchman, Alain Perrin, has also been linked with Saints after quitting as Marseille manager last week.

Perrin was formerly in charge at French club Troyes, where Saints defender Michael Svensson played under him.

There are only five foreign managers working in the English professional game at present, but three - Arsene Wenger, Gerard Houllier and Claudio Ranieri - are at three of the most high-profile clubs.

But Daily Echo columnist Ball hopes Lowe won't go down the route favoured by the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal and even the English national team in appointing from outside the British Isles.

"Call me old fashioned, but I believe the English culture is totally different to the foreign culture," said Ball.

"The foreign managers don't know our country, they don't know the area they might be moving to.

"You need a person in charge of a football club who knows what the fans want, who knows what the badge means.

"I don't think you get that with a foreign manager - and as a result you don't get the loyalty."

He continued: "Foreign coaches don't bring great systems with them.

"If a foreigner were to take over at Saints you wouldn't get the fans saying at matches 'cor, isn't THIS great - we haven't seen anything like this before!'

"There's too much talk about systems.

"Listen, when I was in charge at Saints Matt Le Tissier used to make me look a good manager because he was brilliant and helped us to win games, him and the players around him.

"It had nothing to do with systems, and everything to do with players.

"The person managing a football club has to know what his supporters want. He needs that knowledge.

"Southampton fans want to see entertaining football played on the ground with a sprinkling of big names in their team. That's what they have been brought up on, and they love it."

In choosing Gordon Strachan's successor, Ball believes the club's eighth manager in a decade MUST attempt to bring stability back to Southampton.

Reflecting on Charlton's amazing rise to Champions League possibles, Ball said: "Alan Curbishley has been given time, he has been allowed to run the football side of the club as he has wanted to, so he's got the job right.

"Charlton have got that stability, the same as Manchester United. It's no co-incidence the best club in the Premiership, the most successful, has the longest-serving manager. He's been allowed to build it up.

"In contrast, Saints have had seven or eight managers in 10 years - they have done marvellous really in that time given that instability, but you can't keep on doing it, you need stability.

"Look at the job Sam Allardyce is doing at Bolton ever since they put him on a 10-year contract.

"He's doing incredible things, but he's able to make big decisions because he knows he's not under real pressure, he's not looking over his shoulder every time Bolton lose."