It is stalemate at Staplewood as Virgil Van Dijk remains away from the squad after standing firm on his desire to leave. Nick and Arron look at the latest developments.
The Daily Echo are reporting this morning that Virgil van Dijk has continued his stand-off with Saints, as he tries to force his way out of the club. The papers on line site reported.
"Saints had hoped that the Dutch centre half would accept the club’s decision not to sell him this summer, and re-join Mauricio Pellegrino’s squad having been forced to train alone while his teammates continued their pre-season preparations in France last week."
"However, van Dijk is understood to have told Saints there is no change in his situation, leading the club to inform him that they are also standing firm."
"Saints are desperate not to lose face having been so solid on this issue, and having been accused of giving in too easily to player demands in the past."
"Liverpool are remaining quiet about van Dijk having been alleged of tapping-up by Saints earlier in the window, but media close to the club still report the Reds are keen to get a deal done."
"Saints, on the other hand, have consistently maintained that he is not for sale and are staying strong in the hope the player will relent."
"But the reality is they have an asset worth £60m or more, who is probably also the best player in the squad, effectively doing nothing of any constructive use to them, and all the while how it affects spirit in the dressing room remains a key concern for Pellegrino. "
"Whatever happens it is difficult for Pellegrino, who is trying to establish himself at the club, while the fans will also remain concerned not only by van Dijk’s actions but by the fact it is overshadowing what should be an exciting build-up to the new campaign. "
Presumably the Echo have got this information directly from the club and as they say it is now a delicate situation, as stated Saints have constantly said they will not sell and that position remains, it could be said that this is the time to start holding the player to his contract, after all Saints have paid him handsomly since January and now they continue to have to pay big wages for a player who for one reason or another is not available to them to do the job he is paid to do.
But getting tough on the player will only inflame the situation at present, Saints had hoped that Van Dijk would come round and honour at least the next year of his contract, this being the case they were handling him with kid gloves.
If they get tough that will only alienate the player further as they found with Jose Fonte a year ago n a similar situation.
With no bids having arrived on the St Mary's doormat we can only assume the player or his agent remain in contact with Liverpool, after all publicly they are saying they have ended their interest, so surely Van Dijk is not standing firm only to find out that they are not interested after all.
Perhaps ironically enough it is the Saints fans who hold the key, the club are well aware that the supporters are disgruntled after 3 summers of sales, they blamed the club and accused them of giving in too easily, despite the fact that in every summer they did stand firm when it suited them with Schneiderlin, Wanyama and Fonte told they had to stay.
But Fonte last year and now Van Dijk this highlight the arrogance and disregard to which today's players show their employers, of course it's business but it has to be two way.
Now Saints fans will begin to understand what has gone on over the last three years, in the main the departures of Lallana, Lovren, Clyne, Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Mane Fonte and now Van Dijk centre not on the club's desire to sell them off to the first bidder, but on those players demands to be sold to the club of their choice, not to the highest bidder at a price that suits Saints, but to the club they want to go to, ie the one that offers them the most.
I don't blame them for that but they can't have it both ways, they sign contracts they should be prepared to honour them.
So perhaps fan power holds the key, the Saga continues to rumble on and over shadow the excitement of the start of the new season, it now time for the club to consider selling Van Dijk ? Or as Nick and Freddie have said on the latest TUI transfer talk have Saints backed themselves into a corner now and have no choice but to stand firm?
The comments on Social Media seem to be that the majority of supporters want the club to stand firm, early indications on our poll say 59% want the club to stand firm and sell him, a further 12 % say let him rot in the reserves whilst only 29% just want the sorry saga over and the player sold.
What are your thoughts ? Give your thoughts in the comments section and vote in our poll using the link below
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/members/!/polls/1782/your-tho