Paul Mitchell is expected to be reunited with Mauricio Pochettino after handing in his notice at Saints.

The club’s highly-regarded head of recruitment has been linked with a switch to Premier League rivals Tottenham, who persuaded Pochettino to leave St Mary’s for White Hart Lane last summer.

After days of speculation, the Daily Echo understands that Mitchell has told Saints of his intention to leave the club.

Saints are not expected to make any formal comment on the situation, but are believed to be relaxed about Mitchell’s impending departure.

Though 33-year-old Mitchell was well thought of at the club, executive director Les Reed has already explained that the system Saints have put in place means that the departure of one person will not destabilise them in any way.

Mitchell, a former Wigan and MK Dons player who has been with the club for three years, is the head of a vast and experienced team who helped Reed and manager Ronald Koeman with the summer rebuilding job.

That team remains intact, aside from Mitchell, and will continue with business as usual.

Saints are confident that his departure will not have any effect on their continued progress.

Mitchell will no doubt be hoping that some of the success Saints have achieved in the transfer market in recent times rubs off on Spurs, who have signed a number of flops in recent years, presumably promoting Daniel Levy to make this move.

He may well also seek to replicate the achievements at Saints in a similar manner, with Pochettino clearly familiar with the way in which he works.

The redevelopment of Staplewood saw the analysis and recruitment department gain significant investment.

They have a team of staff scouting games from across the globe and analysing future signings, as well as opponents. That runs from first team level all the way down to the youth sides.

There is the now famous Black Box room in which video clips and stats of can be accessed in moments, and in which player audits are carried out to assess how the club’s various squads can be improved.

However, all of this infrastructure and the staff who use it on a day to day basis are not affected by Mitchell’s departure.

That is why Saints are so confident it will still be business as usual when he leaves the club.