Southampton FC encouraged by Kelvin Davis' contract talks

Head coach Mark Wotte met up with Davis yesterday after the Daily Echo player of the season, who is out of contract at the end of next month, returned from holiday.

His future no doubt weighed on his mind but Davis remains committed to staying at St Mary’s next season, despite significant interest from elsewhere.

There is always the danger, as talks drag to find new club owners, he may decide he has to look elsewhere – at this stage Saints can’t commit to any new contracts due to their financial situation.

But Wotte is already planning for next season and said: “We can’t make an offer, so it’s all provisional, but we try to make a deal. When we get a green light, we can sign the papers.

“We are quite close in reaching an agreement – it’s good to know Kelvin is more or less happy with the contracts.

“That’s good for him and us, we just have to know for sure we can pay his wages.

“The League is stopping us from signing players until we’ve solved our problems but if Kelvin would have said ‘I can’t settle for this kind of salary’ we would have to move on.

“But he said he was thinking positively about the future of the club and he wants to be part of it and he respected the offer and would think about it positively.”