Saints pleased with progress of Koeman contract talks

(Reuters) - Southampton manager Ronald Koeman's contract negotiations are moving in the right direction, according to executive director of football Les Reed, who hinted that both parties were now working on the finer points of an extended deal. Koeman has enjoyed two successful seasons at St Mary's, having broken the south coast club's Premier League record points tally twice and guided the Saints into the Europa League with a sixth-place finish earlier this month. The Dutchman, who is in the final year of his contract, has been heavily linked with a move to managerless Everton by the British media, but has previously affirmed his commitment to Southampton. "There's no point going into contract negotiations about finance and money unless you're all on the same wavelength about where the club is going," Reed told the club's website (www.saintsfc.co.uk). "If Ronald is committing himself to the club for a longer period of time, it's important we talk about our ambitions being aligned and that we are still trying to achieve the same things. "We're now at a point, as Ronald has said himself, where we're actually getting down to the details of the contract, which is where agents and lawyers get involved. Everything is going very positively at the moment." (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by John O'Brien)