Saints and Koeman contract talks going well

Cape Town - Southampton's negotiations with manager Ronald Koeman over a new deal are progressing well, according to executive director of football Les Reed.

The Saints broke their Premier League record points tally for the second successive season under Koeman, who guided them into the Europa League with a sixth-place finish this campaign.

With a year remaining on his current deal, the manager has been linked with a move away from St Mary's but the club remain confident of keeping hold of the Dutchman.

"Conversations go on all the time about planning for the future. Ronald has mentioned recently that he's sat down with us at board level and talked about the five-year plan," Reed told the club's official website.

"There's no point going into contract negotiations about finance and money unless you're all on the same wavelength about where the club is going.

"If Ronald is committing himself to the club for a longer period of time, it's important we talk about our ambitions being aligned and that we are still trying to achieve the same things. 

"We're now at a point, as Ronald has said himself, where we're actually getting down to the detail of the contract, which is where agents and lawyers get involved. Everything is going very positively at the moment."