Southampton have named Jan Poortvliet as their new head coach after manager Nigel Pearson was told his contract will not be renewed despite steering the club to safety last season.
Chairman Michael Wilde told the club's official website: "We are extremely grateful for Nigel's contribution. He came to the club at a time of crisis and through his hard work and commitment we were able to avoid relegation on the last day.
"However, the board have been looking closely at the situation on the playing side of the club whereby we are inevitably going to have to depend to a large extent on the quality of our youngsters in the academy and the reserve team.
"Our view on that was we would need to adopt a European-style coaching system comprising head coach, with the objective of linking the academy to the first team.
"The board believe this will create opportunities for our younger players, which might not occur within the traditional English management structure."
