Sevilla manager Unai Emery is favourite to take over from Ronald Koeman according to media sources.
Unai Emery was allegedly a candidate for the job at St Mary's two years ago before Koeman was appointed, now after another two Europa League titles Saints are reportably about to go for the Spaniard again.
In many respects Emery's job at Sevilla mirrors the one that he would be required to do at Saints, realistically Sevilla are not going to compete with the big guns in Spain and his aim was to get Sevilla up there with them and get into Europe and win a cup or two along the way, just what we at St Mary's want.
Emery is known to want to manage in the Premier League and therefore the Saints job would be high on his wish list given that the other clubs in the top 10 have managers in place and under no threat of the sack at present.
Ironically Everton themselves spoke to Emery but the new shareholder wanted Koeman and decided to break the bank to get him, on paper Emery would be a better bet than Koeman given his managerial achievements with Sevilla and Valencia in Spain, so it's surprising that he seems to have been overlooked for Koeman, but perhaps Everton will rue this decision in the future
Given the situation, I would be very surprised if Saints had not already been in talks with Emery with the intention of making an appointment very quickly if and when Koeman does depart.
Other candidates in the running include Bournemouth's Eddie Howe, although his lack of experience at the level in which Sains are now competing would make him an outsder.
