SAINTS director of football Jason Wilcox has declared outright his ambition to work back in the Premier League as soon as possible in a first interview at the club. 

Manchester City's former academy director agreed to move to St Mary's back in January and has now started his work above manager Russell Martin. 

Saints were relegated to the Championship before Wilcox's tenure at City ended and he wants to help get the club back to the top flight as quickly as possible. 

Here is every word he said in a newly released interview, recorded before he joined the team for their trip to Turkey... 

Welcome to Southampton, how excited are you to be in the building and getting under way?

JW: "In the background, I've done a lot of work and it's been a long six months. I needed to finish at Man City in the correct way, that meant a lot to me to look after the staff and make sure that everything was in place for my successor - so I've been working in the background. I've done a lot of work travelling up and down from Manchester to London.

"I needed to make some changes and I've been watching from afar, so it's been quite a frustrating time to see the team struggling but I think this is an opportunity for us to reset and look forward.

"I think it's really important for everybody connected with Southampton that we remember the past and we learn from the experiences of the last 12 months, but we look forward now and we put things right. We've got to try and bounce back as quick as we can and I'm really looking forward to it.”

From January to now the situation with the club has changed slightly - does that change your role specifically in the short term?

JW: “Yeah, I think when you get relegated there's an awful lot of people, playing staff and staff around the football club you know, there are a lot of changes that have taken place.

"It's not easy. I think if you're a good person you always feel these things. They're never easy to deal with. But I think what it has given us is a bit of a platform now to rebuild and make sure that when we do get back to the Premier League we stay there and we're in a really good position to move forward and to build from it.

"My gut instinct looking from afar is that we've been surviving for maybe two or three years and when you're surviving and you're hanging on to Premier League survival, you don't get the opportunity to look forward.

"My job is to make sure that I look ahead and make sure that when we do get in the Premier League, we're absolutely prepared to stay there and establish ourselves as a top 10 Premier League club and you know, why not?

"That's why I came here. I've not come here just to have a nice experience. I've come here to win and to win you need good people and you need support from the board. That's what I've got in terms of the vision for the club going forward.”

What were your conversations like with Sport Republic when it was coming to a point where you needed to make the decision to come here?

JW: “When I spoke to the staff on Monday, I said I've not come here to bring in Manchester City down south, that's not what I'm going to do. I think Southampton have got some amazing things, my experiences of playing and of working for Man City a long time will help. 

"You've got Russell's (Martin) experiences of playing and working at Swansea but I think what's really clear is the alignment of our game model and what reflects that, you know, that's my job.

"My job is to come in and make sure we've got alignment where the first team manager plays a certain way and the academy teams play a certain way and then we can transition creating this pathway for the younger players. That's what I'm here to do.

"I think when you don't have alignment and you have inconsistency of work, it takes you a lot longer to get there and you're being reactive all the time. So I've been brought up now for the last 12 years on a complete alignment from top to bottom from the board to the director of football to the first team manager to the academy director.

"Then when you get that alignment of thinking and you understand profiles of players, you understand what's happening on the pitch, you can build and you can grow and even when you're losing football matches, you can actually understand where you're going wrong or when you win football matches you can understand what you're what we're doing really well and have clear measures.

"That's something that I'm looking to implement and I say to do that the first port of call was to get the manager that plays and thinks the same way as me and that's also when we're recruiting players. I've said to Russell we will never sign a player that he doesn't want and we will never sign a player that I don't want. We're completely aligned.

"I've been really impressed with him and the staff that have come in; they're all good people and all ambitious and they all want to be in the Premier League. The players want to be in the Premier League. Russell and his staff want to be in the Premier League and so do I.

"So there's alignment from day one. So, you know, we're all hungry for success and we're all gonna work together and try and bring it to Southampton and we're looking forward to it. I feel like I've been here a long time.”

You mentioned the word alignment. Russell made it very clear what his philosophy is going to be and what Southampton fans can expect to see from their team moving forward. Is that an identity that's going to transcend down through the age groups to the younger guys as well?

JW: “Absolutely, I think you know, we're talking about alignment again and game model and I think I know what type of football I want to see when I turn up at St. Mary's or when I'm watching the academy teams and that is a team that wants to dominate the ball and dictate the game to the opposition.

"And when you want to dictate the game to the opposition and have lots of possession when you lose it. You've got to get it back quickly and be aggressive. And I think you know, we've got to get ready for a season in the Championship.

"We're going to be on the front foot and we're going to be aggressive and we're going to be fit and we're going to have a style with the ball and understand what everybody's role and responsibility is – and that's the manager's job on the pitch.

"My job is to help guide and support and give everybody the support that they need off the pitch to make sure that they can thrive and not just survive all the time. So I think that's where we are now, in this revival stage of a building and then we'll be in a position that when we get back to the Premier League we will thrive and that's what I'm here to do.”

The Women's and Girls programme has been growing from strength to strength. What's the plan for continuing that development with the women's team?

JW: “Yeah, I think women's football is growing rapidly. It’s no different here than it was at Manchester City. I remember being a coach at Manchester City and having five or six senior England internationals training with the under-18s.

"I'm a big supporter of the girls’ programme. Marieanne Spacey-Cale is really ambitious. She wants to move the programme forward and the football club is fully behind. I say establishing the girls' programme is something that's really important and is growing rapidly.

"It's growing a lot quicker than the men's game and we've got to be ready for that and we've got to try and create infrastructure to support that. At Man City when I was there, it probably grew quicker than we could support it and I think the same will probably happen here. So we've got to be ready and I'm fully supportive of it and fully behind it.”