Sadio Mane has left Southampton for Liverpool for a fee that breaks quite a few records and that most Saints supporters will find grossly more than his actual worth.
When a player leaves a club it is often the case that the supporters who formerly idolised him turn against him and claim he was never much good anyway.
That is not quite the case with Sadio Mane, undoubtedly on his day he was unplayable, but the problem was his actual "day's" were few and far between and usually crammed in during late April early May.
Indeed anyone looking at Mane's stats as they sat in the stands at St Mary's ahead of the game against his now new club Liverpool on the 20th March would have found it hard to believe that 3 months later he would be going to Anfield for a fee believed to be £34 million plus add ons that could make him Liverpool's record signing above Andy Carroll at £36 million.
On that day with only 8 Premier League games left he had only 3 PremierLeague goals to his name, the last one being ironically against Liverpool 5 months earlier.
Indeed there were those who would have said that on his form last season Saints would struggle to recoup the £10 million we paid for him in the summer of 2014.
Perhaps one factor in his massive transfer fee today is Manchester United, a year ago they leaked rumours they were interested in Mane to fend of criticism in losing out on Pedro to Chelsea, they had no intention of purchasing him, but the press took up the story and kept running it, Liverpool seemed to have taken note and there seems little evidence of why Liverpool have been prepared to pay this much apart from the fact that they might feel they are putting one over their rivals from along the M62.
It is hard to fathom the size of this fee, as mentioned it is almost Liverpool's club record and possibly will soon be, it is the biggest fee paid for an African player eclipsing the £28 million Manchester City paid for Wilfrid Bony two years ago, it dwarfs the amount neighbours Everton paid for Lukaku, both players scoring considerably more goals than Mane.
The only reason Liverpool can have paid this much is that they feel thet Jurgen Klopp can get Mane playing to his April form for the other 8 months of the season, they are certainly not buying a player with a proven consistent track record over a season.
This is not a disgruntled supporters dissing his former hero, this is an opinion based on hard fact and that fact is Mane is just not worth £34 million.
Saints supporters are chuckling here, I need to say it again £34 million for Mane, I would have said if we got £20 million we would have been getting a good deal, so this price is amazing and not one we could have turned down, if Mane is worth £34 million then Shane Long is worth £50 million.
This money reinvested well will allow us to do what we always do and that is strengthen the squad, it means Mane can be replaced with two quality players, who between them would get far more than 11 goals a season.
Good luck to Sadio Mane he will need it, this means that in two years we have had nearly £100 million from Liverpool and I think Liverpool fans would not be too impressed by what they have got for the £66 million shelled out so far, on the face of it the four players who went before all had better pedigree's than Mane, Liverpool are taking a big risk here.
Sadio Mane is an enigma, you just don't know what he is going to do, in the main it has been very little that has been inflated by that end of season burst, I hope we have banked the cheque in case Jurgen Klopp reads this.