A week ago it looked like the deal for Alexander Buttner was virtually signed sealed and delivered, now its unclear just what is going on.
With both the player and his club Vitesse Arnhem stating that the deal was agreed it looked like only a formality before the player was unveiled as a Saint, however as the weekend wore on, it seemd that something was not quite right with Vitesse putting out an offical statement to say that the deal was in jeopardy due to the emergence of a third party, just who that third party is is unclear.
It inferred that Buttner's agent has put the spanner in the works whilst confirming that Saints themselves had no part in the problems and had conducted themselves in the right manner, but the question still remains just why the deal has stalled.
It could be that the agent is demanding a cut on the deal, this is pretty standard and it seems it could be he is demanding it from Vitesse who are refusing to pay, there statement also refers to the fact that they feel they, on the request of the player actually negotiated his deal with Saints, if that is the case then the agent probably is legally in the right to demand his cut of the deal if he is contracted to the player.
So will Saints hang on in there and wait for their man, or will they get tired of waiting and look elsewhere, certainly the Saints chairman is a man who is renowned for not allowing agents to try and dictate during transfers, as had been well documented in the past several Saints transfers have fallen through at a late stage for a variety of reasons, the question now is whether Alexander Buttner will soon be a Saint or will join the list of the nearly men.