IT is the news all Saints fans wanted to hear – Alan Pardew is staying on as the club’s manager.

Chairman Nicola Cortese finally broke his silence yesterday to confirm he would not be sacking Pardew.

There had been intense speculation in recent weeks that the manager could be fired, after failing to guide the team to the League One play-offs, despite heavy investment of about £3m in the team.

After originating in the national press at the start of the month, the rumours snowballed further at the weekend.

BBC Solent – who have a commercial agreement with the club – reported that a “source close to Markus Liebherr” had told them the owner did not attend the final game of the season because he was unhappy with the progress that had been made during the campaign.

Those claims were again repeated two days ago.

The BBC also first reported on Saturday night that a meeting was due to be held between the chairman and manager on Wednesday.

Despite repeated attempts to clarify the situation with Saints over the past four days, the club would accept no calls from the Daily Echo and refused to return any.

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