Mark Hughes looks set to stay a Saint for another year after agreeing a compromise deal to become the new Welsh manager.

The FA of Wales wanted the Southampton veteran to take the post full-time when his current contract at The Dell expires at the end of this season.

Hughes, who turned 36 on Monday, would prefer to play on and is in such good form that Saints are keen to keep him for another season.

They have dangled a one-year extension to his current deal taking him through to June 2001 and Hughes is thought to have told the FAW he wants to sign.

They are so desperate to get their man that they will allow him one more season in the Premiership before hanging up his boots to concentrate solely on management.

The Welsh FA have offered a four-year deal but cannot match the salary he receives from Southampton.

They are prepared to pay £100,000 a year once he takes the reins full-time but sources in Wales say they will trim it to around £20,000 per match until then.

Hughes was formally offered the job yesterday and is mulling over the fine details before giving his decision on Tuesday. However the green light now looks a formality. He said: "I will talk it over with my advisors over the next few days and let them know my answer early next week.

"I have said in an ideal world I would like to carry on playing and manage Wales and I can assure people I could not give any more commitment or passion to the job if I was doing it full-time." FAW secretary David Collins added: "It is important to get the right man to take us into the new Millennium and we are prepared to let Mark play on for another season if it means we get him.

"We are talking four or five international games a year at most and it would only be for one year so that is acceptable."

Saints would also be pleased with the compromise. They have found no problems with Hughes combining his two roles and manager Dave Jones said: "We are quite happy for him to do both jobs. It has not affected his form or his training and we have said we will help him all we can with scouting which means it is no different to him going away to play for Wales."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.