Michael Wilde and Rupert Lowe will be offering Saints' directors the chance to avoid an EGM and see out the season - in exchange for an orderly handover of power.

They will be contacting the club's PLC board to give them the opportunity to stay in power until Tuesday, May 6 if they agree to step aside peacefully at that point.

The former chairmen have requisitioned an EGM to remove the current PLC board, aside from finance director Dave Jones, and replace them with Wilde, Lowe and Andrew Cowen.

That would mean chief executive Lee Hoos, football board chairman Leon Crouch and non-executive PLC directors Patrick Trant and Keith Wiseman resigning.

Saints have until next Monday, April 21 to name the date of the EGM, which then needs to be held within 28 days.

It is understood that the plan of the current board was to hold off on naming the date until the last minute so the EGM would be held after the 2007/08 season finishes at home to Sheffield United on Sunday, May 4.

As they know they would have no chance of winning an EGM vote - Wilde and Lowe now boast over 46 per cent of the Southampton Leisure Holdings shareholding behind them - they would stand down just before.

However, Wilde and Lowe have come up with a compromise solution that means the club can avoid the hassle and expense of setting the EGM date if the current PLC board bow to their requests and accept the change will take place on May 6.

That allows the continuity for the team in terms of trying to avoid relegation that Crouch had called for, but allows Wilde, Lowe and Cowen the chance to hit the ground running immediately.

Wilde confirmed: "We will be offering the board the chance to accept the requisition requests and avoid the need for an EGM if they agree to an orderly transfer of authority on May 6.

Full story: See today's Daily Echo.