Claudio Ranieri held talks over Southampton job in 2014

Claudio Ranieri has revealed he held talks about becoming Southampton manager last summer.

Ranieri, whose Leicester City side play the Saints on Saturday, spoke to Southampton before they appointed current boss Ronald Koeman.

Instead, Ranieri took charge of Greece in July 2014 - just weeks after Koeman took the Saints job - but was sacked four months into the post having lost to the Faroe Islands, a result which left them bottom of their European Qualifiers group.

The Foxes go to St Mary's on Saturday and Ranieri admitted he made a mistake taking the Greece job after speaking to Southampton when the Saints were searching for Mauricio Pochettino's replacement.

"Yes," he said, when asked if he held talks with the Saints.

"I was interested, but after that there was also the Greece job - and I made a mistake. It was important that it was the right moment - and it [Southampton] wasn't the right moment for me.

"This is the right moment at Leicester. Southampton has a very good project, they want to be at a high level. They started it with Mauricio Pochettino a long time ago.

"Now we are starting, we are a little bit behind, but we want to fight and arrive. We want to emulate our project, we don't want to emulate another project."

The Foxes are fifth in the Barclays Premier League and unbeaten away from home but have not kept a clean sheet since May.

The record and the dreams are good for everyone around us but we go on the pitch and we have to concentrate.

Ranieri has warned their away form means nothing ahead of their trip to the south coast.

He added: "The record does not make points. That is important for me. The record and the dreams are good for everyone around us but we go on the pitch and we have to concentrate.

"You can think about all the matches from now until December but we have to think about Southampton."