Southampton v Norwich: Mauricio Pochettino expects to be at Saints next season, but adds that you can't 'guarantee anything in football'

Mauricio Pochettino expects to be at Southampton next season and is looking forward to working with newly-appointed chairman Ralph Krueger.

Saints have enjoyed a successful season on the pitch under the Argentinian manager, but things off it have been tumultuous since the turn of the year.

The shock departure of executive chairman Nicola Cortese in January led to widespread talk of a meltdown at St Mary's, with many wondering whether Pochettino would follow him out of the club.

However, eight weeks on, the 42-year-old remains at the St Mary's helm and reports this week even suggested he was in advanced talks over a new deal.

Pochettino was coy when quizzed about his future on Friday morning, but was keen to point that his existing contract runs to the end of the 2014-15 season.

"I do have one more year on my contract, don't I?" he said.

"That also doesn't guarantee anything in football either."

Pochettino's future is likely to depend on how his relationship with Krueger develops.

Fresh from helping Canada to ice hockey gold at the Winter Olympics, the Canada-born German was named chairman of the holding company, St Mary's Football Group Limited, on Tuesday.

Krueger has been handed responsibility by owner Katharina Liebherr to lead the club forwards and spoke glowingly about Pochettino and his staff upon his appointment.

"Of course it is always nice to hear someone has spoken nicely about someone and I thank him for that," the Saints boss said.

"It is clear that this club needs tranquillity after all the upheaval that happened at the beginning of January.

"There are two months left in the league competitions, a lot of changes this club is going through at this moment and it is clear right now we need good words to move forwards in a calm and relaxed manner at this football club."

Surprisingly, Pochettino has not spoken to Krueger since his appointment was made official, although they are meeting on Friday lunchtime.

The pair have met on several occasions in recent months and the Saints manager is looking forward to hearing what the new chairman has to say, with his thoughts on holding onto Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana likely to be particularly interesting.

"I think that is going to be more of a private conversation that I am going to have with him," Pochettino said.

"He is the new chairman and I am pretty sure that he is going to have a lot more things to tell me than I am going to have to tell him. I look forward to listening to him."

Krueger will oversee his first match as chairman on Saturday, when Southampton host Norwich in the Barclays Premier League.

Jack Cork will miss the game and the next few weeks after sustaining an ankle injury in last weekend's win at Crystal Palace, while his replacement Victor Wanyama is a doubt.

Back-up goalkeeper Kelvin Davis is the only other injury concern heading into a match which Pochettino believes will play a big part in where they end the season.

"Right now we're in ninth position in the table and we want to be eighth," he said. "That is basically our goal at the moment.

"We always want to be climbing positions and Saturday is an important game to do that.

"We want to win points as much as we can, want to climb positions as much as we can from here on to the end of the season.

"To be in the top 10 teams I think is a very good growth for this team and a very important thing for this football club."

PA