Manchester United have made an official approach to hire Southampton director of football Jason Wilcox, the PA news agency understands.
Ineos recently took charge of football operations at Old Trafford as part of the deal that saw Sir Jim Ratcliffe become minority owner of the Premier League club.
United are looking for a resolution to hire Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth, who has been placed on garden leave, and negotiations are also under way to bring in Wilcox.
The 53-year-old joined Sky Bet Championship side Southampton as director of football from Manchester City last summer, having worked up to the role of academy director during 11 years at the Premier League club.
Jason Wilcox (second right) during his time with Manchester City (Andrew Matthews/PA).
Wilcox is now subject of an approach from United, although compensation terms are a sticking point.
The Red Devils have offered compensation commensurate to a year’s salary, but Southampton want a bigger package.
United want Wilcox in place for the summer and are hoping for an amicable outcome.
A report emerged during Southampton’s match against Ipswich on Monday evening that he has resigned, which would mean serving a 12-month notice period before he could take up a new role.
Wilcox is understood to have a good relationship with incoming United chief executive Omar Berrada from their time together at City.
Russell Martin, pictured, was asked about the Wilcox situation after Saints’ defeat at Portman Road (John Walton/PA)
Manager Russell Martin was asked about the formal approach for Wilcox in the press conference following Southampton’s stoppage-time 3-2 defeat at Portman Road.
“I would say give me at least 10 minutes to get over the disappointment of tonight and we’ll chat at some point this week and I’m sure I’ll have more for you,” he said.
“I’ve not spoken to the club (about it). You know my feelings on Jason, and I’ll have a chat with him after.
“I’ve just had a text saying how proud he was of the performance. The rest is, once I’m told I’ll let you know.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here