Victor Wanyama has spoken publicly for the first time on the situation that surrounded Tottenham Hotspur's alleged bd for hi back in the summer.

The Mail On Line has published some direct quotes from Victor Wanyama in a story that it is hard to determine whether the Mail is trying to clarify just what happened or whether it is trying to stir up the situation again.

The Mail claims that Spurs offered Saints £18 million plus Erik Lamela back in August, whatever the deal Saints were not playing ball and this lead to an esculation of the situation with someone stirring up Wanyama to start demanding a move.

The story is that it was Koeman himself that talked the player round, pointed out that Morgan Schneiderlin could have moved to Spurs in 2014, but stayed, increased his reputation and ended up at Manchester United, a far better deal for him both personally, financially and of course in terms of playing football.

Wanyama is quoted as saying.

’ I know what happened wasn’t easy. I just wanted to put it aside and concentrate on my football and try to help the team. "

‘I don’t regret it, but I don’t want to have those experiences again. I want to forget it and to do that I need to help the team and the manager who has helped me as well."

‘If I was a fan I also wouldn’t be impressed if I saw an important player getting interest from elsewhere, but it’s nature, it’s football. The fans have been good, they have backed me and I really appreciate that. Hopefully we will deliver something food for them this season."

‘I definitely learned from it. I think it was perhaps an important experience. In football it’s normal for things like this to happen, but it shouldn’t have been like that I just want to focus on my football now and help the team."

‘I’m happy. I’m happiest when I go to the pitch, play well and help the team win. That makes me even happier. I want to have another wonderful season and hopefully from there everyone will be happy.’

The Kenyan was also at pains to point out that although he did not play against Norwich because his head was seemingly not right, that he had genuinely been ill for the game earlier that week in Denmark where Saints disappointingly went out of the Europa League in the qualifying round.

I was sick. I played the first leg so it wasn’t normal for me to miss the second leg.
‘I was ill. It’s so bad hearing people say it was my fault we didn’t go through because I didn’t travel. That’s not true. ‘Sometimes you get injuries and illness. I was sick. I went to the hospital and saw the doctor. I don’t need to prove I was ill, but it hurt me even more because I couldn’t help the team.’

Its difficult to make out whether this means that Wanyama is now happy at Southampton and wants to stay where he is, or whether he is still looking to get away.

On one hand he seems to have learnt a vital lesson from Ronald Koeman and certainly Saints proved that they will not be pushed around, but on the other he is very none committal, not making any mention of a new contract at St Mary's and that seems to allow the Mail to put their usual spin on things, which due to some of their football writers being pro Cortese is by default mostly anti Southampton Football Club

It seems to leave as many questions unanswered as it answers and that leaves the gap open for the media to drive a horse and cart through it and start the rumour market going.

Overall though you have the feeling that the player is aware that Saints will sell when they are ready, that he with two years left is not in a strong position, that he is willing to give his all for the club as he knows that will only improve his chances of getting a big club in for him, but he seems to have little interest in signing an improved deal.

This being the case I would ascertain that both Saints and the player know that he will not be sold in January, but like Morgan Schneiderlin this summer, with a year left on his deal, Saints will have to cash in at the end of this season.

Photo: Action Images

schatfield added 16:15 - Nov 23 is the lesson here that wait a year and you can go to man utd? Either way, its not to stay at Saints
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SaintNick added 16:51 - Nov 23 Our strategy is based on getting players in at a certain price, improving them and then selling them on, yes a couple of years ago we sold too many but now have it under control Wanyama bought for £10 million, 3 seasons out of him and then sold on for £20 million is good business
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BoondockSaint added 17:39 - Nov 23 Nick, if that's our strategy, we might as well change our name to "The Premier League Development Academy Club". It should be: sign good players, development them, make more money from TV, merch, advertising, by moving up the table, buy better players and dump the previous, older players on clubs lower down the table.
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SanMarco added 18:11 - Nov 23 This definitely is our strategy and it will keep us punching above our weight in upper-mid table IF each season's replacements are good enough. One year where our four best players go off and the replacements are inadequate and we are back to square one. In order to really compete with the very biggest clubs we would have to extend St. Mary's to 55-60,000 and fill it every week. I wonder when the last team to average 32,000 got into the Champions League, let alone won the title. When was the last league winner who averaged under 40,000? Blackburn I expect and they were accused of 'buying' it.

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abingdonsaint added 18:50 - Nov 23 The quotes in the Daily Fail are directly lifted from Vic's interview in Saturday's match programme, so are presumably genuine. The situation with him though, and most of our recent sales is really very simple....money! It annoys me when we are labelled as a 'selling club'. On the face of it, yes we are, but largely through necessity rather than strategy. Anyone who saw the recent fans forum would have heard Les Reed refer to the constraints we are under as regards salaries we are allowed to pay. I have no idea exactly how this is calculated, but understand it is FFP instigated, is linked to turnover, and he also mentioned that the fact we were recently in League One goes against us. Koeman has said recently that our total wage bill is the fourth lowest in the Premier League. So, it's not rocket science that when other clubs can offer our best players two or three times what we are paying them, they will be tempted no matter what we do! It then becomes a matter of how long they have left on their contract. In fairness, we have usually refused to sell when there is time left, but as with Clyne in the summer, I'm sure we did our best to extend, but once he made it clear he was not going to sign, with only one year left and 10 million on the table, it becomes a no brainer. Now I know some will say that we are the only club that sell so regularly, but that is simply because we have been successful and have quality players other clubs want. Any other club in our situation would do the same, and it will be interesting to seem what happens to Vardy and Mahrez at Leicester this summer! Going forward, the longer we do well, the more we will be allowed to pay, and hopefully players will be less inclined to move. In the meantime, lets trust the recruitment department keep doing their job as well as they have so far!

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SanMarco added 19:25 - Nov 23 That's interesting Abingdon - "the longer we do well, the more we will be allowed to pay". How does that operate? Presumably prize money puts our turnover up a bit but do transfer fees count? i.e. buying cheap and selling dear ups our 'turnover' and allows us to pay more? If that's the case I wonder how many years if will be before we are competitive wage wise?
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saintmark1976 added 20:08 - Nov 23 Excellent response Boondock, I could not have written it better myself. If Everton a club with similar ground capacity as ourselves are able to build a team around their quality players then why is it beyond us? They appear to have no problem in telling the so called bigger clubs that their players are not for sale.
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SaintNick added 20:36 - Nov 23 Evertons ground capacity is not similar to ours it is 40,000 which is around 30% more than ours. Evertons strategy was far different to ours, it was built on hard working workmanlike players who individually werenot great but worked hard as a team. Hence very few were coveted by teams bigger than Everton, when they where they generally went ie Rooney and Fellaini, so the reason is simple they have never had too much true quality as we have. If Liverpool cant keep Sterling then what hope do we have

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abingdonsaint added 21:20 - Nov 23 Good point about Everton Nick. Our buying policy is more based on potential rather than 'the finished article'. By doing our research, we have managed to sign the likes of Mane, Wantana, Van Dijk etc. All relatively young and improving, but who the bigger clubs were unwilling to take a chance on. They then improve with us and become more desirable commodities. Still, proves we are doing something right! I also suspect that as an established Premier League club, they pay more than us though....

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abingdonsaint added 21:21 - Nov 23 Wantana?......bloody spellcheck!
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abingdonsaint added 21:30 - Nov 23 ....and SanMarco, I have no idea how it works, but LR clearly stated that we are able to pay more each year. Looking at it again on YouTube, I suspect the point about being penalised for being in League One recently is that the total wage bill can also only increase by a certain percentage year on year. Which again would mean Everton can pay more. Guessing though!

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BoondockSaint added 21:37 - Nov 23 FFP means nothing, it was weakened over the summer. Anyway, ManCityhad already figured a way around it. They have bought teams in leagues around the world so they can do what they did with Lampard last year: Sign him to a big contract for New York FC, and "loan" him back to ManCity, so his cost and wages are not on ManCity books. Only the mega-rich teams can do this, so it nothing changes.

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saintmark1976 added 21:43 - Nov 23 Sorry Nick but Evertons average attendance last season was just less than 8000 per game more than ours. Hardly a vast number I think you will agree and certainly not enough to generate large amounts of addition revenue to resist approaches from the "big teams". I saw Everton hammer the Saints 3-0 back at the start of the season and their players looked a little better than "workmanlike" to me especially their centre forward who's name I never can spell.Did they not also tell Chelsea to "go and do one" when they came calling with an offer suggested to be well in excess of £20 million for Stones?

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GeordieSaint added 09:54 - Nov 24 Is it just me that thinks he is very replaceable? The other issue is contract length. If he has only 2 years to go and wont sign a new one then he should be sold this summer to maximise the return. I reckon if saints were to get in excess of 20 mill they could buy two lads of similar quality.
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SaintBrock added 10:15 - Nov 28 None of us know what goes on inside the club so wild speculative assertions about club strategy based on nothing other than one's own opinion add nothing to this saga whatsoever and Nick should stop stirring the **** when he knows next to sfa himself. Let's take the story at face value and leave it at that.
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