Jimmy_D

If VvD is relying on us dropping our price for him to get his move, he'll end up disappointed.

We've never set a precedent for a player leaving with 5 years left on his contract.

It's all in the name, it's a container for **** filters.

Saints position unchanged apparently. They've got my full backing on that as far as I'm concerned.

Lallana did the same thing, I've got absolutely no doubt whatsoever he was tapped up by Liverpool too.

You have to wonder if anyone actually read that statement back before it was put out.

Aye, if we've got anything at all we should be going for Liverpool's tapping up with everything we've got now.

Of course he hasn't been tapped up, he's just come out with this all off his own back... At least when we keep hold of him now it won't cost us so much.

I see they're getting desperate for their Southampton player fix and looking at Oxlade-Chamberlain now.

Yeah, was just starting to break through to the first team when he got the ACL injury as well, appeared on the bench a couple of times, without coming on. It's really good to see him back and fighting back to that sort of form again.

Obvious to anyone that Klopp isn't happy with his defence with Europe to contend with now. Sounds like damage control after finally realising that VvD isn't going there to me.

It's not a sideways step, but it's certainly nowhere near as big a step up as Liverpool fans would like to believe.

Sounds like the Chelsea rumours are gathering a bit of pace. Still just rumours though. Chelsea would certainly be more palatable, considering two of our best players have come from them recently. I'd still be keeping him here though, gambling on him getting his head down and playing. Less of a gamble than trying to bring in a replacement with this little time left before the end of the transfer window for me.

So... after 7 years of continually better league placings, we've dropped two places, in a season where we had our best ever showing in the Europa League, and were denied silverware in the League Cup by inept officials. This summer, it looks like we could well resist a world record fee for a defender to keep hold of our best player. And this constitutes a downward spiral? What exactly were you expecting?

Difficult to read much into that, looked like we were trying a few things out and giving chances to some fringe players. There was the odd flash of decent stuff, but hopefully we'll see a much better performance on Saturday with what you'd expect to be pretty close to our first choice team.

I see some of their utter ****wits are still trying to peddle the line that we always wanted to sell and it's just the money we're mad about. Obviously, everything, from making him captain, to him still having half a decade left on his contract, to us stating every single time he's not for sale, to actually calling out an investigation on them for tapping up, which caused them to put out a humiliating public apology, and end all interest in him, apparently at our insistence... all of that just screams 'for sale'....

Sounds like it's time for you to find something else to do.

It would be, but I don't think he's available at that price any more.

Not surprising, 'tis a David Maddock article.

Technically he's not on strike as it's the club that's sent him to train on his own, and isn't refusing to play but is instead not in the right frame of mind to play. That can easily be blamed on the agent giving him bad advice. Might not wash with everyone on here that's been hitting F5 on here every 3.6 seconds, but it'd be easy to spin for the majority of fans that aren't us that he's knuckling down and back with the team, especially with a few soundbites from his team mates and a couple of decent performances on the pitch. Bearing in mind that the player hasn't said anything himself publicly, and it's all media reports and twitter that everyone is basing their opinion on.

Still failing to see how anything you just said there is remotely true.

Oh no, how terrible, he might end up having to stay here.

I'd guess he was approached by the agency and they offered to represent him, maybe even for free, but taking a cut of any transfer fee due to him. A player like him at a club like Southampton would normally end up being pretty lucrative eventually.

Or we just keep hold of him because no one can afford him.