Sporting director Ivan Mance has ruled out a move to Southampton, labelling the suggestions as nothing more than ‘clickbait’.
Mance is currently a part of the Sport Republic Group, a project run by Serbian millionaire Dragan Šolak.
Their latest investment was a £100m purchase of a stake in Southampton, replacing Gao Jisheng at the head of the club alongside minority shareholder Katharina Liebherr.
With the investment came several reports of potential big changes at Southampton, including a change of sporting director.
Those reports suggested that the new men in charge at St Mary’s would like to install Mance in the position.
The 39-year-old is currently a free agent after leaving his role as technical director as Pafos FC in June, having previously been head of scouting and the sporting director at Croatian side HK Rijeka.
That leaves him free to take up a role at Southampton, but he insists there is nothing to those claims at this moment in time.
“This story started out, I suppose, as a good clickbait on the portals and at the moment, with my CV, it has nothing to do with reality,” he told Večernji list.
“Southampton are top of the Sport Republic Group pyramid, and they have people running it. Of course, in the future, I have the right to hope for such great challenges.
“This is a great confirmation because these are people who do not invest for fun but solely for sustainable development. They approached me with the idea of joining them.
“All the more so because competition in projects like this is incredibly demanding. After all, Croats rarely get an opportunity like this.”
