RALPH Hasenhuttl is continuing to work behind the scenes – by developing a club-wide training schedule for when football returns.

Hasenhuttl is keen for the club to adopt an approach to developing youngsters that has them using the same methods as the first team.

So, as opposed to an Under-9s team playing possession-based football, they will start moving towards playing without the ball.

Although Hasenhuttl is driving what he has dubbed ‘iBook’, the St Mary’s hierarchy are also on board with the project and feel that it makes sense.

The concern would be that should the former RB Leipzig chief leave Saints then all his methods would become redundant.

However, that’s not the case.

The Daily Echo is led to believe that they have wanted a club-wide training structure which suits their vision for the future in place for a while.

Should Hasenhuttl’s ‘iBook’ prove to be successful, it will bolster the number of youngsters breaking into the first team.

The collation of training videos and analysis will be made available to all the academy coaches.

This should lead to players gaining an understanding of what Hasenhuttl demands from members of his squad before they are invited to train with them.

The theory behind this is that instead of a youngster taking a few months to become accustomed to the Austrian’s methods, they will already know what to expect.

Hasenhuttl has previously spoken about the importance of having all the coaches throughout the academy singing from the same hymn sheet.

However, with the rigours of a Premier League season, he just hasn’t had the time to put it into practice.

But now professional football has been postponed until the end of April, with his first team training at home until at least April 13, Hasenhuttl is left with plenty of spare time.

He has also used this time to continue scouting potential signings ahead of the summer transfer window.

Although professional football around the world has been paused, Saints’ manager is still able to watch streams of footage online.

His analysts and scouting department have been helping him with both the club-wide training schedule and providing clips of players they could make a move for in the transfer window.