Last night Sky Sports went big on their story that Liverpool want to land Adam Lallana before the start of the World Cup, but does this story have any substance or is it once again Saints being targeted by someone with an agenda. [ Edit ]
When Saints took the unprecedented step to release a statement a week ago regarding the media speculation about their players allegedly signing for other clubs, it revealed along with some cryptic comments in the Daily Echo that the club itself feel that someone somewhere, possibly an ex player is leaking stuff to the media in a vendetta designed to de stabilise the Club.
Certainly media coverage has not been in line with the actual importance of the stories in the grand scheme of things, whoever has the agenda against the club has certainly been using contacts in the media who for one reason or another are happy to put their reputations on the line in order to create an illusion that the club is on the brink of meltdown and that most of the squad is desperate to leave.
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Rumours in the press about transfers are commonplace, the big problem for the media though is that apart from two small windows, no actual business can be done, so they have to spend the rest of the time speculating.
Most of this speculation is just that, but occasionally an editor will choose to run a story with high prominence because the author of it will vouch that his sources are true, that author will of course be putting his reputation on the line and if they prove to be false will not make his editor a happy bunny with him.
So recent rumours about the club are being published with the editor being convinced that they are coming from a good source, not that they are true, that is a different matter, just that it is from a good source.
So if we look at Last nights Sky Sports headlines that Adam Lallana is going to go to Liverpool before the World Cup, ky would have had to be convinced that the "source" is very good, that means either someone inside Liverpool or Saints or someone very close, this would not just be some local journo or the mate of a mate so to speak.
If we try and look at what was claimed last night very carefully you have to say that firstly Liverpool are in the biggest week of not just their Premier League season but aguably the last two decades, is their priority new signings or is it preparing a team that could still win the league on Sunday, I would argue that ruimours like this are the last thing Liverpool need, they want to remain focused, they do not want their own players feeling threatened by rumoured new arrivals, that being the case almost certainly the source is not from inside Anfield, whilst clubs like to use the media to push transfers through, this week at least it is just not on Liverpool's agenda.
So whose agenda is it ? well certainly not Saints, so it is coming from someone close or formerly close to either club !
Someone close to Liverpool ? I would say that if so certainly not someone with the clubs best interest at heart, all Brendan Rodgers wants this week is to stay focused , I cannot see it coming from there. Indeed as Liverpool proved themselves last summer, trying to stir up a transfer in the press only hardens the resolve of the club whose player is being targeted, whilst Liverpool are certainly not sqeaky clean, they are quite ethical and know that a player on a long contract can be held to it, after all that is what they did with Luis Suarez.
Indeed both Liverpool and the players mentioned in the rumours themselves will want distractions.
So that leaves someone close or formerly close to Saints, with the last game of the season coming up, someone wanted to create an atmosphere around the club before Sunday's game.
So my conclusion is this is nothing more than the vendetta being waged against Saints as hinted at by recent statements from the club as well as in the Daily Echo and if that is the case it is having its desired effect judging by the meltdown on some Saints related social media sites last night when Sky ran the story.
Perhaps Saints will lose a player or two in the summer, but that is the "Southampton Way" since the days of Ted Bates our success has been on bringing players through the ranks and when the time is right selling them for a high price whilst improving the team as a whole in the meantime, look at our history that is what we have done, if Lallana or Shaw go, its nothing we have seen before and nothing that we can't come through stronger than we were before, it is a team game, its about the whole team not individuals.
So we Saints fans need to sit tight and ask ourselves who would be spreading these rumours and why ?