Koeman pledges commitment to Southampton despite Netherlands rumours

Ronald Koeman has stressed he is fully committed to managing Southampton despite reported interest from the Netherlands national team.

Netherlands have endured a dismal qualification process for Euro 2016, with their 3-0 defeat to Turkey at the start of September leaving them nine points adrift of the top two in Group A.

Reports have emerged that Koeman has been identified as a candidate to replace Danny Blind, who succeeded Guus Hiddink in July, but the 52-year-old says he is happy at St Mary’s Stadium.

“I’m very settled here, I’ve already had that question last week,” he said on Thursday. “It’s the same answer: I have a contract with Southampton until the end of next season. What will happen after that, nobody knows, but until that date I’m the coach of Southampton.”

Southampton cruised into the fourth round of the League Cup with a 6-0 thrashing of MK Dons on Wednesday and Koeman is eager to deliver a trophy to the club before he considers moving on.

“It’s difficult to win a trophy but it would be an amazing job if we win something,” he added. “The most important thing at the moment is to develop ourselves, we have a lot of new faces in the team.

“We have to fight for a high position in the table and that starts this Saturday [against Swansea City].”