A loan deal would stop us being able to play him against them in the League Cup, but I don’t think it’s the only reason Liverpool declined the deal. A loan deal would also make it easier for Liverpool to pay part of Sakho’s wages and, given Sakho’s off-field problems, would allow us to plug the Fonte hole for six months before we decide whether to make Sakho permanent or until other targets become available in the Summer. Obviously, the uncertainty of getting Sakho off their books is of no benefit to Liverpool.

As Sanguin says, a loan deal can easily be done where the player can't play against his parent team.
Liverpool want to cash in and get rid permanently. Saints don't want to pay £18m and £80k a week for a player with a chequered history in English football and is far from guarenteed to be a success. He could be on £100k a week at Liverpool and I doubt Saints would even be willing to stretch to £80k a week for him. Who is Southampton's highest earner and how much are they on?

A question an investigative journalist might ask right now:

Has some of the hundreds of millions of Premier League prize money received over the last few years been paid into a Swiss bank account, thus forcing the club to sell players and take out bank loans in order to survive?

Where has all the money gone? Why do we try to loan players all the time. He is a good player just pay the money, they have given us enough in the past. What chance have we got of getting a good striker with this penny pinching board?

As with previous posts, l still can't see Sakho moving from Liverhampton to Saints and re-state that I'll paint my backside blue and you can call me Mildred if he does.

What irks me more than anything is that given the fact that Liverpool have taken from us Lambert, Lallana, Lovren, Clyne and Mane you'd think that we'd have earned some goodwill in return. If I was on the board/in charge of transfers I know which two words I respond with on the next bid request to come through from LFC!

If a loan deal for Sakho is the Black Box's solution to our problem it must be powered by Vista. Seriously there's nothing proactive about this. We need a centre half quick...oh he's available, he'll do....is that how we do things now? I thought the one asset we still had was a strong scouting network. If so we must surely have better names than this on the list.

@bstokesaint

Lol. I think all the goodwill was expressed rather elegantly by Brendan Rogers at the time.

The fact that we are now scrabbling around trying to loan a Liverpool reject somewhat reinforces his views that, at the time, where just seen as inflammatory and derogatory

... we still have Gardos

REEDYREEDOREEDZ - If reports are true then Charlie Austin is our highest paid player on 90-100k. I would not agree with the club paying 18-20mil for Sakho, so if a loan deal is off move on.

I haven't seen enough of Sakho to be able to comment one way or the other, but he seems to be held in high regard by the French national team. Either way I'd trust Saints to know by now what constitutes a good central defender. I think "reject" Toby A did a reasonably good job and Chelsea reject Bertrand seems to be doing okay too out wide..

Lloyd, I hope you're wrong about Austin, although I suspect you're not. It's a lot of money to be paying a player who as yet has a lot to prove they warrant being the highest paid player.

If this goes through, it proves beyond a doubt Les is an idiot.

The Scouse want to unload their problem child and his wages , and looking around the league are thinking, "Who is dumb enough? Wait who is it that is stupid enough to do whatever we want? Oh, yeah, Les!!"

It's Osvaldo all over again.....except at least Osvaldo played with passion.

Who's next? Joey Barton?

We need Sakho like a hole in the head. The sort of money that's being talked about should get us a top drawer centre half. And what's all this Fonte going to West Ham business? I thought he wanted one last hurrah at the highest level playing Champions League football? Seems to me that the club and Fonte are taking us Saints fans for mugs.

When Sakho played for PSG and when Liverpool signed him he was rated as one of the best young centre backs in the world. He's only played under Rodgers and Klopp and both managers play all out attack. The midfield offer little protection to the defence so the defenders are often left exposed and look vulnerable. Lovren went there after a great season with Saints and looked terrible because of this. So there is a chance that although Sakho has struggled for Liverpool it could be because of the system rather than him not being any good.

Not getting the 'liverpool reject' comments here. Sakho is a good, talented defender who got a lot of game time for liverpool last season and before. It's the fact that he's fallen out with Klopp that is the reason for Liverpool wanting to say goodbye.

And I very much doubt this is a knee-jerk action from Saints. More than likely SFC have been monitoring the situation with Sakho and may be having putting him forward as a potential summer target to replace Fonte. However, Fonte has decided he wants to go now so they are looking at whether they can bring this forward and not get mugged off in the process . What might be mitigating this is that West Ham are in a desperate situation and look likely to pay the £10-12 million value we've put on 32 year old. Using that as an off-set, we are looking at bringing in Sakho for £8-10 million pounds, which is likely to be a lot cheaper than he would cost in the summer anyway.

His temperament is perhaps an issue, but i am confident that SFC have examined that closely. He would join a fellow Frenchman who has expertise in coaching and developing players. Like I say (and please don't take my word - look him up) Sakho is considered to be a very technically gifted player - a strong presence who can play the ball out of defence. If he got his head right him and VVD would be immense at the back.

It's his value and wage demands that are probably causing the biggest headache for Saints, which sits alongside the fact they don't want to pay a lot of money in this window so to be ripped off. So trying to link the offer of a loan deal to some un-evidenced clap about the owners pocketing all SFC's profits is hardly the issue here. Saints are being astute with their money - something which many other clubs could take notice of. Look at West Ham at the moment - that's a club that is panicking and flaying around.

If the Fonte deal comes off, and Sakho agrees to a wage cut, SFC may feel that the right opportunity is there.

I know some of you will mark me down. But ask yourself: is it really stupid if Saints get a french international defender, who has played at the highest level, who is widely regarded as a very good technical defender, for approx £10-12 million as a replacement for Fonte (who doesn't want to be here any more)? Do we really think that is the act of a stupid club that doesn't know what its doing?

I've seen a lot worse from other clubs.

And to answer the 'osvaldo' point. We have to remember that Osvaldo was clearly a Cortese whim purchase - he thought that Pochettino would get the best out of him once reunited. Trouble is Osvaldo (as we now know) is clearly 'off the scale' with regard to his attitude and mentality!

Osvaldo is a rarity these days: somebody who clearly had huge talent but his inner demons always surfaced come what may. Modern scouting/profiling tends to filter those types out sooner rather than later. Is Sakho the same? He's had his moments, but nothing on the scale of the Osvaldo's (and Barton's) of this world!

Well said BoondockSaint.

Supporting the Saints has never been easy but this season I am beginning to think that the Club's management are in some sort of parallel universe.

A coach who makes wholesale changes to the team each Wednesday to Sunday irrespective of players previous match performance. An assistant coach who appears to be rooted to the dugout game after game and says and does nothing and now it is suggested that we want to loan,yes loan a player who has an attitude problem and no recent Premiership form. In addition it appears that our captain and up and till this month our centre half wants to play for a big club, yes West Ham!

Add in the fact that we have a chairman who appears more interested in ice hockey and an owner that gives the impression of losing interest by the day leaves me with the felling that we all have a lot to worry about.

I agree with pint sized- for Klopp and the dislike for Sakho, look at Mourinho and Morgan/Luke Shaw. Utd will be rid of both by the end of the summer.

I'm not defending Osvaldo (and it seems now that some posters are retroactively glad he nutted Fonte). I am saying he at least put in an effort,

Check out this:
https://www.sportsjoe.ie/football/stories-mamadou-sakhos-time-psg-may-sound-fami

And this:
http://www.thisisanfield.com/2016/08/mamadou-sakho-klopp-finds-similar-problems-

If he didn't change his attitude for Ancelotti or Klopp, do you really think he is going to change for a lightweight like Puel?

Because if you do, I'd like to sell you the London Bridge.....oh, sorry! Les Reed has come in with a bid and beat you to it!

The articles you link to all note that Sakho is talented but has temperament issues. As I said above, it's got to be on SFC's mind but i have confidence that they are profiling him and believe it is a risk worth taking.

As for Puel being a lightweight. I'm not sure what that means. If you are suggesting that he's got no chance of getting the best out of a highly talented player who has failed at other clubs with temperament issues, I only have to point to Hasem Ben Arfa...

I meant Hatem Ben Arfa! Blooming spell check...

http://www.espnfc.co.uk/blog/espn-fc-united-blog/68/post/2848836/hatem-ben-arfa-

Good points by Boondock & Pintsized

His attitude is definitely questionable but so was Ben Arfa's. This is blatantly why the club want him on loan; to see what his mindset is and whether Puel can work with him and get the best from him.

I reckon if the club can't get him on loan then they won't sign him. Too much of an expensive risk.

Well, I wouldn't like to be the club or Les Reed stuck in the middle of this! Pay £20m and maybe get an expensive disruptive flop. Don't pay £20m and get accused of salting away millions to mystery bank accounts. Fail to get Sakho on loan and get accused of penny pinching. Get him on loan and he turns out to be brilliant and Chelsea buy him for £30m from Liverpool in the summer. Frankly I'd prefer we walked away and spent the money on a goalscorer, the position where we have the greatest need at present.

I mean that Puel doesn't command the same respect as the others..... , big star managers turned us down. The type that players respect....and fear.

Klopp for instance has given Sakho a chance and he hasn't changed so it's out the door-because Klopp commands that respect of his board.

That's not going to happen here.

Whats up with our board? Why have we not signed any new players? Even Swansea have signed 3. All the teams at the bottom have signed new players . Do they want us to get relegated?