Ruben Selles has expressed his delight after being confirmed as Southampton's permanent manager until the end of the season.
The 39-year-old was initially placed in temporary charge following the sacking of Nathan Jones, who lasted just three months in the Saints hotseat following a poor run of form.
Southampton immediately returned to winning ways under the tutelage of Selles last weekend when they secured a crucial 1-0 Premier League victory away against Chelsea.
Selles has since been handed the job on a permanent basis until the end of the 2022-23 campaign, and is tasked with guiding his relegation-threatened Saints side to safety with 15 top-flight games remaining.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday just a few hours after his appointment was confirmed, Selles said: "It's a pleasure for me. I think we all deserve it, all the technical staff and the full staff have been amazing in the last ten days together. For me, it's a pleasure to lead such a unit and a good group of players.
"I didn't have a lot of time to spend thinking about the announcement. I left the club and my agents to work on that and I've been focused on the game.
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"This morning there were a couple of congratulations but we have one mission and we are all in for that so there's not much time to take the focus away from that."
Selles added: "I can tell you that I'm very thankful for the owners and for Martin [Semmens] for giving me the opportunity until the end of the season, and for all the support I got in the last week.
"Once the club decided that I was the person to take it until the end of the season, I just continued doing my job. It was nothing special, it was just about continuing the good work that we have been doing the last two weeks."
A potentially pivotal bottom-of-the-table clash is up next for Selles and co as they make the trip to Elland Road on Saturday to face 19th-placed Leeds United, who will also have a new manager in the dugout in the form of Javi Gracia.
Selles has confirmed that the Saints will be without four players for their visit to West Yorkshire, including top scorer Che Adams who is still recovering from an unspecified injury.
Valentino Livramento (ACL) and Juan Larios (hamstring) are also ruled out, although the latter has stepped up his recovery in training, while January signing Mislav Orsic will not be involved due to concussion.
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"We have Che Adams, Tino Livramento and Juan Larios out of the squad," said Selles. "Che is a repeat injury, and we have a concussion for Mislav Orsic from a couple of days ago, so that is going to take him out of the squad because of the medical observation following the protocols that we follow.
"[Larios] has been training a couple of days this week for us and soon he will be able to compete. He will need to follow some steps because it's a long-term injury. We need to be careful with a player like Juan.
"A young player, a very young talented player that is working very hard. We don't want to rush anything in this process but hopefully very soon he will be able to play games."
However, Selles was able to provide a positive update on defender Mohammed Salisu, who could be available for Saturday's game after recovering from a knock that kept him out against Chelsea.
"We have Salisu back in training this week," Selles added. "Not sure he will play but he has the option to play tomorrow. The rest of the squad is fit and ready to go."
Southampton could move off the foot of the Premier League table and climb out of the bottom three on goal difference if they beat Leeds and other results go their way this weekend.
Oliver Thomas
