Ex-Rangers man ‘agrees’ Southampton move as former Celtic coach poised for EFL position

With the former Gers star set to move to the Premier League’s current bottom club his current role could be filled by Brendan Rodgers’ former assistant.
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The 2022/23 Scottish Premiership season concludes this weekend with plenty still to be decided, not least the battle at the bottom to avoid relegation.

Celtic have already won the league title and are preparing for the Scottish Cup final while Rangers, who will finish second, are making early moves to build their squad for next season. Elsewhere, there are some managerial moves down south concerning familiar faces to both of the Glasgow clubs.

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As reported earlier this week, former Rangers defender Russel Martin is the favourite to take over at Southampton who will be playing in the EFL Championship next season after their relegation from the Premier League was confirmed. Now, Sky Sports claim that the deal for the 37-year old to move to St Mary’s is done after confirming that head coach Ruben Selles’ contract will not be renewed.

The report claims that Martin has verbally agreed the move to the Saints and will depart current club Swansea City having guided them to a 10th place finish in the second tier this season. The former Scotland international was previously in charge of MK Dons and ws even briefly linked with the vacant Rangers role before Michael Beale’s appointment.

The Swans are set to move quickly to replace Martin and it looks like a former Celtic coach is one of the frontrunners for the vacancy. According to Wales Online and other sources, Chris Davies could be in line to return to the club where he was assistant manager between 2010 and 2012.

Davies was assistant manager to Brendan Rodgers at Celtic and, before that, at Liverpool. He was also the Northern Irishman’s number two at Leicester City before the pair departed the relegation threatened Foxes earlier this season and has an experienced coaching CV dating back to 2004.

He left Liverpool in 2016 to take up the head coach role at Reading before leaving the club six months later to join Rodgers at Celtic.

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