Rangers man set to join Southampton FC | OneFootball

One of Danny Rohl's members of staff is set to trade Ibrox for St Mary's Stadium in a post-transfer window switch

Southampton may not be in the automatic promotion battle from the Championship that they anticipated, but their chances of an immediate Premier League return are by no means over.

The first few months of 2025-26 were slow under previous head coach Will Still, who failed to make the impact that was expected or desired, with his short tenure ending with a home defeat to Preston North End at the start of November.

In stepped under-21's boss Tonda Eckert, who has had somewhat of a mixed start to life as a number one in the dugout, but he has the south coast outfit in the play-offs, with the top six now the presumed aim for the remainder of the Championship campaign.

During the mid-season transfer window, there wasn't too much incoming activity at St Mary's to rock the boat, but the departure of talisman Adam Armstrong to Wolves was somewhat unexpected - and it meant that an eyed up move to Rangers for underperforming Cameron Archer was shelved.

Southampton set to raid Rangers for Liam Ross

Rangers may not have been able to bring Archer to Ibrox, but a move has been made in the complete opposite direction after the transfer window has closed, with the Saints raiding the Scottish giants.

As reported by the Rangers Review, Rangers under-19's head coach Liam Ross is on the way out of Glasgow, and he's making the move to the opposite end of the United Kingdom by joining the academy setup at Southampton.

Ross has been at Rangers since 2024, joining their youth setup after spending a year with Swansea City as an assistant manager to Anthony Wright, the South Wales outfit's under-21's boss.

And when previous Rangers under-19's manager Steven Smith was given a promotion to Danny Rohl's first-team staff at Ibrox, Ross took on the former left-back's responsibilities - yet that has only lasted a handful of months.

The report suggests that Ross' move to the Championship side has already been finalised and he has made his Rangers exit, with an interim appointment at the Scottish outfit set to be made thanks to his departure.

It's unclear what role that Ross is set to take up with Southampton, with former players Adam Lallana and Andrew Surman in charge of their under-21's and under-18's respectively, but he will bring a wealth of experience to whatever job it is, having also spent many years at Dundee United prior to his time at Swansea and Rangers.

Liam Ross raid shows Southampton still have pulling power

Even though Southampton are currently a mid-table Championship club, they still have parachute payments from their Premier League relegation - and they're clearly being put to use by raiding Rangers for Ross.

Rangers of course are a big club in their own right, but even they will struggle to compete with parachute payment outfits in a bid to keep their players and staff.