Bristol City were linked with a move for Southampton goalkeeper Kelvin Davies as a potential replacement for Chris Weale should he leave for Leicester City – but the Saints yesterday revealed Davis could stay at St Mary's.

Southampton manager Mark Wotte confirmed a provisional contract offer had been discussed with Davis, a free agent.

Cash-strapped Southampton are unable to offer new contracts to any of their players while they remain in administration, but Wotte was confident Davis will stay at the club if new owners can be found quickly.

"We can't make an offer, so it's all provisional, but we try to make a deal," said Wotte.

"We are quite close in reaching an agreement – it's good to know Kelvin is more or less happy with the contracts. That's good for him and us, we just have to know for sure we can pay his wages.

"The League is stopping us from signing players until we've solved our problems, but if Kelvin would have said 'I can't settle for this kind of salary' we would have to move on.

"He said he was thinking positively about the future of the club and he wants to be part of it and he respected the offer and would think about it positively."