For those who think that Koeman is definitely off the table for us due to that Les Reed interview from Saints
Here is what he said in an interview on the 25th April about then manager Pocchetino
"As you know I am a member of the board and director of the Club and my responsibility is football.
“Currently I am responsible for transfers, I’m responsible for contract negotiations and all of those board level football matters that the Club is involved in.
“I work very, very closely with Mauricio [Pochettino]. We speak every day and sometimes for several hours in a day. We’re very close and talk a lot about all the matters that go on here. I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there that needs clearing up.
“The first point I’d like to make is that, with regards to Mauricio Pochettino’s contract negotiations, both Mauricio and myself – that (dealing with negotiations) is my role – are very happy with the way we are approaching it at the moment.
“Let’s clear it up because he (Pochettino) gets asked the same question every week. We talk every day. We are talking about everything to do with the future – planning, pre-season planning, the transfer strategy.
“No player will be brought into this club or leave without Mauricio and I discussing it and his agreement. We talk about that on a daily basis. We are planning for the future and for the long-term future.
“We would like to focus on the remaining games of this season and Mauricio has repeatedly said that and therefore we will pick up the details of any contract talks in the summer when the season is over.
“The second point I’d like to make, and I would like to re-emphasise that we’re happy with that; both myself and Mauricio are happy with that so we can focus on the detail of pre-season, transfer-market planning and so on. We’re both comfortable with the situation.
“The second point I’d like to clear up is speculation in the press about our players. That is my responsibility. As we stand, there have been no enquiries, and we have had no bids, and we have had no offers for any of our players. That is accurate; that is the truth. That is exactly where we are.
“Reports that we are about to close deals on certain players and so on are totally misinformed, misleading, and are not true. No club has been given permission to talk to any of our players. So reports that some of our players are in the process of negotiating stellar transfer fees or contracts are absolutely misinformed.
“No club has been given permission to talk to any of our players. That will remain so. As far as the policy is concerned, we’ve had a great season. We want to build on that season. We want to improve the squad going forward.
“We want to retain the players we’ve got. They are all contracted. They all have existing contracts and we intend for them to honour those contracts. Any enquiries we get will probably be met with a ‘no – not for sale’. Our intention is to keep this very good team together and build on it by bringing new players to improve on that.
“Every transfer window, particularly in the summer, is difficult because everybody is out there trying to attract players. We have our targets. We want to improve the squad. These are things we’re discussing on a daily basis.
“We will tend to develop a squad that’s capable of not just maintaining the position we’re in but improving next season. Therefore, it’s a positive message we want to get out there. I think our fans deserve to understand that there is not going to be a fire-sale here. We have repeatedly said that.
“We’ve had no offers for players. Deals are not about to be concluded for any of our players and we want to keep all of our best players here at this club and build on that for the future.”
Read more at
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/arti...-and-players-1509755.aspx#Asb3g4gqFKeLlhRc.99