Southampton are confident that England defender Nathaniel Clyne will sign a new contract "sooner rather than later", with negotiations ongoing with his representatives.
Clyne, whose current deal at St Mary's expires next summer, was given 10 days to decide on his future by manager Ronald Koeman at the end of April amid interest from Manchester United. That deadline has now expired, but despite no resolution having been reached, Southampton's chief executive Les Reed is confident the 24-year-old is close to following forward Jay Rodriguez in committing his future to the club.
“With Clyney it’s been the same as with Jay, we’ve been talking for quite a while,” Reed told the club’s official website.
“Ronald made a comment that there was a deadline. That deadline was more about getting a response, and that issue has been solved by the fact Nathaniel has changed his agent. We got an immediate response from his new agent.
“That’s not our business, but there was something there slowing things down. That’s all accelerated, I’m in discussions with his agent and those have been very positive.”
Clyne, who moved to south coast on a free transfer from Crystal Palace in 2012, said last week that he was happy to stay at Southampton having established himself as a regular in the England squad.
“There’s bound to be speculation because he’s such a good player and has had such a good season so we have to balance that against what he can do for us in the future and what we can do for him,” Reed added.
“We’re at a very good place at the moment in terms of discussions going on and I’m confident again that we will have a resolution to that sooner rather than later.”
