THE man who oversaw the sale of Liverpool FC four years ago has been linked with replacing Nicola Cortese at Saints.

British-born Christian Purslow was managing director of the Anfield giants between June 2009 - a month before Markus Liebherr completed his takeover at St Mary’s - and October 2010.

Towards the end of his time on Merseyside, the former Harvard College student was instrumental in selling Liverpool - the club where he had a season ticket before he worked there - for around £300m to John W Henry’s Fenway Sports Group.

Previously, a team headed by Purslow negotiated an £80m four-yeary shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered Bank.

Prior to his time at Liverpool, Purslow worked for Credit Suisse First Boston, a banking division of the Switzerland-based Credit Suisse Group.

Cortese dramatically left St Mary's on Wednesday night after his resignation was accepted by Katharina Liebherr.

Purslow's name was linked to Saints in a national newspaper report this morning.