Liverpool fans have breathed a sigh of relief, the news that Sakho might have only bruised his ligaments means they think we will be willing to do a deal for Van Dijk.
Liverpool fans seem to think that the key to them signing Virgil Van Dijk will be their ability to sell us Sakho, they feel that their club have not got the money to pay out £50 million for the Dutchman, but as we are desperate to sign Sakho he can be the £30 million makeweight in the deal.
The problem with that one is that we are not going to pay £30 million for Sakho, nor are we going to match his alleged £110 k a week wage demands, if Saints are one thing in the transfer market it is careful, we do not just look at a player on his performances, we value him against what we would have to pay both in transfer fee and wages and if the figures don't add up then we won't be buying.
Add to that we look at a players temperament and whether he would fit into the Southampton way of doing things and Sakho does not look to be our man, no matter how much the Liverpool Echo try to convince everyone he is, just about the only thing more that the paper could do to try and get this deal done is give us a free full page advert.
That Saints don't panic buy was shown back in January when we refused to bow down to the demands of both Liverpool and Sakho to transfer to us, despite the fact that we desperately needed a central defender, we knew Sakho's worth and it was not the £20 million we were quoted by Liverpool back then so it certainly isn't £30 million now.
We do not look for under performing overpriced players, we look for those who are still just under the radar and who we can bring in cheaply, develop and then move on for profit and repeat the process.
That is why we bought Lovren, Clyne & Mane for a combined fee of around £20 million and sold them to Liverpool for a shade under £70 million.
If Virgil Van Dijk does go in the summer he will go for a massive fee, but we will not be spending £30 million of that on Sakho , if Liverpool think that 50 odd Premier games in 4 seasons is developing a player and means that his worth is now around £12 million more than they paid for him, then they have another think going, if we were to sign Sakho it would be at less than what Liverpool paid for him, not more, otherwise we will go and do what we have done before, find a better player for around £12 million .
The media war is now opening to sell Virgil Van Dijk, the Liverpool Echo is obviously very close to Liverpool Football Club in the way that it is willing to try and convince anyone who will listen that this transfer will happen. and on terms dictated to by Liverpool.