Southampton have identified the former RB Leipzig manager Ralph Hasenhüttl as the club’s preferred choice to replace Mark Hughes, who was sacked on Monday morning after a dismal record of three wins in 22 league matches since taking charge in March.

Saints have sounded out Hasenhüttl, as well as Quique Sánchez Flores, the former Watford and Espanyol manager as potential candidates to help the club regain its identity and move up the table. Both Hasenhüttl and Flores are out of work after leaving managerial posts earlier this year.

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Saints’ former goalkeeper and first-team coach Kelvin Davis will take interim charge, including Wednesday’s match against Tottenham at Wembley, though the club hope to have appointed a new manager before Saturday’s trip to Cardiff. Southampton plan to appoint a manager for the long term, after the previous reigns of Claude Puel, Mauricio Pellegrino and now Hughes ended prematurely.

Hughes’s departure comes at a cost, with the club having to pay the Welshman around £6m in compensation after sacking him six months into signing a three-year contract in May. He becomes the first manager to be sacked by two Premier League clubs in the same calendar year and is estimated to have now earned around £18m in compensation having now been dismissed by Manchester City, QPR, Stoke and Southampton. Hughes’s long-serving assistants Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki have also left St Mary’s.

Saints are keen to appoint a manager with the ability to lead a new era, as opposed to a short-term fix such as David Moyes or Sam Allardyce. They were previously interested in the sacked Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic while the club last week distanced themselves from reports that they had approached Paulo Sousa.

Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) #SaintsFC can today confirm it has parted company with First Team Manager Mark Hughes.



Full statement: pic.twitter.com/EisJf8c2gb

Hasenhüttl ticks several boxes and worked with the former Southampton head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, in Germany. The sackings of the vice-chairman Les Reed and technical director Martin Hunter last month left Hughes’s position in peril, with Saints stating the need to “take constructive action and provide new drive and direction to our football operations team”.

Davis, who made nearly 300 appearances for the club between 2006 and 2016, when asked if being given control for only one match suggests a permanent appointment will happen before the weekend, said: “To me it does indicate that. But whether that happens or not will be up to the guys upstairs. I’m taking the team up until Wednesday and we’ll see after that.”

Hughes replaced Pellegrino in March, steering Saints to safety but the club find themselves 18th in the Premier League this season. After spells in charge of Unterhaching, Aalen and Ingolstadt, Hasenhüttl has been without a job since ending his impressive spell at Leipzig in the summer. That saw the club finish second in the Bundesliga in their first season after promotion, although the 51-year-old stepped down after a disappointing campaign last season in which they finished sixth.

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Davis revealed his pride at taking temporary charge of his home club. “The opportunity I’ve got now is to take the lads for a couple of days’ training and to prepare for the Tottenham game,” said Davis. “After that is after that. I don’t think it would be wise to even consider anything after that.

“My aspirations are to continue to support the club as best I can and, if one day an opportunity arises to become a manager, I would love that. But for now that’s a million miles away from my mind.”