Black: It's been easy to settle at Saints

Black arrived at St Mary’s last month as new boss Claude Puel’s right-hand man, joining Pascal Plancque on his coaching team.

The 52-year-old, who has managed and coached in both England and Scotland, said it has been a simple process easing into his new role.

"It's been made very easy for me, I must admit, by those that are surrounding the first-team squad and the coaches that were there previously, so I've really enjoyed it,” he told Southampton’s official YouTube channel.

“I've been very impressed with the infrastructure of the club and, again, the personnel that are within that structure.”

During his playing career, Black enjoyed incredible success with Aberdeen, winning the 1983 Cup Winners’ Cup and scoring in the 2-1 victory over Real Madrid in the final.

He then spent five enjoyable years at French club Metz, which is where his association with Puel began. 

Black said: "I'd played against Claude quite a few times when I was playing in France, and we had a mutual friend, so we had met up a couple of times in France, and he's always sort of discussed if the opportunity arose would I come and assist him if he ever came to England?

“About six or seven weeks ago, the call came to say 'Would I be interested?' and at that point I came down to meet Les [Reed] and that was a kind of semi-interview, discussion-type scenario, and they offered Claude and then me the job.”

Black is optimistic that the experience he has from the English game will make for a nice blend with Puel.

"You hope so,” he said. “I'm 16 years now down in England, and obviously I've been abroad and worked in Scotland.

“I've worked in the Championship, I've worked ten years in the Premier League, so I've got an idea. Hopefully it'll be an accurate one.

“Obviously, I'll try to give him as much information as I possibly can, but he's obviously trying to introduce a new style of play as well, so there's a lot of work to be done on that. Hopefully I can contribute – that's all I'm here to do.”