Liverpool are about to launch an alleged second bid for Nathaniel Clyne, but the fee that Brendan Rodgers is really just taking the proverbial.

even the most naive of football supporters appreciates that in any transfer negotiation there is an amount of bartering that goes on, the selling club will quote a grossly inflated fee and the buying club will come in low and eventually both parties will meet somewhere in the middle.

But if a transfer negotiation is to be conducted in a serious and businesslike manner then both parties have to be realistic.

That being the case no one was too surprised after last year's dealings with brendan Rodgers when it was leaked to the press that he had tabled a £10 million pound bid for Nathaniel Clyne, yes it was on the low mark being around half of Saints valuation of the player , but it was after all an opening bid and they are always taking the mickey a bit to test the water.

Given Rodgers penchant for conducting his transfer business using the media to spread unrest in a player it was no surprise that in the past week reports started to surface that Liverpool were about to come in again for Clyne with an improved offer.

A second offer is usually the more serious one, its showing that your ready to start talking real money and are not some 10 year old playing monopoly, but it seems that brendan Rodgers is more at home landing on Old Kent Road than he is in the real world.

The latest report is that Liverpool are upping their bid to a whopping £11 million, a massive increase of £1 million on their initial offer, do they think we are going to bite their hands off !!!

But although this is a derisory increase that we are going to turn downout of hand, the reality is that this is slightly sinister, a pattern is emerging after our dealings with Brendan Rodgers last summer and that pattern is that Small Time Brendan likes to conduct a campaign of unsettling his transfer targets in the media in the hope that the player will put pressure on his club to let him move to Liverpool even if it means a low fee.

We saw this with Adam Lallana last summer as Rodgers used the media to insinuate that he would change his transfer target elsewhere if Lallana was not sold quickly and hopefully cheaply to him and we saw it with Lovren whose head was in Liverpool long before they actually made a bid for him.

So this is another Brendan Rodgers plot, but he is on dodgy ground, firstly he is not the only option in the market as he was for Lallana and secondly Saints are better prepared this time, it could all backfire on Brendan if a more ethical manager comes in with a bid that is acceptable to Saints.

Secondly he is not the attraction that he was a year ago to a player, back then he could offer a move to a club that had just finished runners up and was in the Champions league, a year on Liverpool have gone backwards and so has Rodgers reputation, both as a manager and a person, but also inside the game he has the whispering going around that the Liverpool dressing room is not a harmonius place.

So Rodgers does not have the deck of cards that he had last summer and it seems that he has gained no knowledge or common sense in that time. Perhaps it will be attractive for a player to join a manager with a fast growing reputation for not being ethical or honest with his players, but he won't find many friends amid other Premier League clubs who are fed up with his underhand tactics.

So do one Brendan and come back when you are serious !

Photo: Action Images

BaselSaint added 11:19 - Jun 16 The Scouse seem to think its a actual offer! Hilarious.
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perazi added 11:45 - Jun 16 At one level it is a micky mouse offer and with Rodgers being a serial offender for unethical poaching of SFC players we should be telling him to take a hike. On the other hand Clyne has just one year left on his contract and if Man U have cooled their interest then it may be that a figure like 11 - 12 million may seal the deal.
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halftimeorange added 12:26 - Jun 16 Rodgers has an ally in the England "manager" (if that's an appropriate description of Roy Hodgson). The media reports that Clyne has been told to fight for his international place should be interpreted as "move to one of the big six if you want to be selected". I'm convinced that happened with Lallana. How Hodgson rates Jones as a better RB than Clyne is beyond me and everyone else watching on Sunday. Jones is another Milner - an honest workhorse but not really international class. We haven't heard that Clyne isn't going to accept Saints' latest offer but, if he does want to go, then Perazi is right - £11M is better than nothing.

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Jesus_02 added 12:53 - Jun 16 While I agree with perazi to some extent. I don’t think 11m is what we are actually discussing here. The more important issue is being able to extract full market value for players. Don’t forget that we have only heard offers around £15m for Morgan as well. Liverpool are asking for £50m for Stirling who is in a similar position contractually. Is he really £35m better than Morgan! This could well play into saints hands yet. OK he may well want a move but he is currently of quite low wages and he is well aware that he will not be let go for £10-11m. His only real options are to stay at saints and see out his contract on lower wages or agree a new one (with possible release clause) Liverpool’s options are straight forward as well. Pay a reasonable amount or wait and compete with Man U, Arsenal, City ect to see who can offer the best contract/ prospects. I’m not sure that Liverpool would win that one.

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no7saint added 13:48 - Jun 16 Maybe Rodgers is only half-serious about wanting to land Clyne, and now views Saints as a real rival in the PL pecking order. Continual low bids destabilise the player and he may be hoping will maintain a rumour frenzy that will deter him from re-signing with Saints. If it works for Rodgers fine, if Clyne goes elsewhere we become a weaker rival so he still benefits. Or maybe I'm getting cynical!

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DPeps added 14:20 - Jun 16 You would hope that Lambert and Lallana will be having a word with Clyne, telling him exactly how much good moving to Liverpool has done for them. Watching Lallana for England on Sunday demonstrates how wasted he is at Liverpool
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corkcitysaint added 19:24 - Jun 16 Maybe Clyne is getting a bit "big headed' now if his reported stomp off the field for England is true. Players have egos, big egos and they listen to a lot of nonsense "yes" men tell them. Personally, I think he hasn't been the same since Xmas when all the talk of others clubs being interested in him started coming out. Players still have to work hrs to prove themselves every match. A move to Liverpool now would surely be a move sideways but with more money. I wouldn't be too pushed about who he moves to as long as we are well paid!

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IWOZTHERE added 00:39 - Jun 17 I'm a bit concerned that our 'sugar daddies' may be a bit short of cash. How will we survive? Rumour has it that the 'bin men' are going on strike in Liverpool soon. How the hell are they going to dispose of all the waste we sent up there last Summer? (Don't include Rickie Lambert in that!)
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