Southampton plan to open negotiations next week with Mark Hughes over a permanent contract of up to three years, providing they can guarantee their Premier League survival, with Sunday’s last game against Manchester City.

Hughes has impressed the club’s board and all three of them – chairman Ralph Krueger, and the two vice-chairmen Les Reed and Martin Semmens – were at the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday night to see the team win a crucial relegation match against Swansea City. Also there was Nelly Gao, daughter of Gao Jisheng, who bought 80 per cent of the club for £210 million in August from Katharina Liebherr.

Nelly Gao will be the next figurehead of the club’s ownership, rather than her father, although she will leave the decision over the future of the next manager to the board and senior staff. They have been impressed by how quickly the players have taken to Hughes and his staff Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki since their arrival, and they feel that was reflected in Tuesday’s performance in a game the club had to win.

Ordinarily, the club prefer to give three-year contracts to their managers, although it will be a matter of deciding the right deal once Premier League survival is ensured. There are currently no other alternatives to Hughes under consideration, and he stands to earn a bonus of around £1 million if he can secure survival. The club does not have a chief executive but Krueger, Reed and Semmens are assisted on the football side by director of recruitment Ross Wilson.