The news will come as a huge relief to Saints fans after administrator Mark Fry yesterday warned time is running out fast for the club as they look to remain in business.

Pinnacle Property Consultants, backed by Le Tissier, looked set to complete their takeover last week but the deal stalled when the Football League insisted they must forego the right to challenge the points deduction put in place when the club's parent company, Southampton Leisure Holdings plc, went into administration.

The delay has led to a lot of uncertainty at St Mary's, with other interested parties, notably a Swiss consortium, once again becoming involved.

But Saints legend Le Tissier believes Pinnacle will complete the deal early this week and told BBC Solent: "We're confident the issues with the Football League can be resolved on Monday, even if that means accepting the penalty.

"The Pinnacle Group are still 100% committed to finalising this deal."

He added: "Michael Fialka is a part of the group. A lot of time, effort and money has been committed and it would be silly for us not to see it through.

"There are still other clauses in the Football League document (denying the right of appeal) that we believed to be ambiguous, which we hope the Football League are able to be fair in this respect and we hope to come to an agreement on Monday.

"They (the Football League) are denying us the right of appeal, which we feel is not fair. But if it's the only way to move things forward, then we are prepared to maybe take the 10 points on the chin and move on.

"I spoke to the (group) owner on Saturday morning and he's confirmed that once the Football League issues have been dealt with, it will only be a matter of hours after that that we can complete a deal."