It is fair to say that over the last three years Saints supporters have been a little peeved by the sale of some of our top players , now they want the club to make a stand.

One of the downsides of our strategy over the past few years has been that we have not only brought through some decent players via the academy, but we have had a knack for discovering players, bringing them in cheaply and turning them into the finished article and then been preyed upon by the so called bigger clubs.

Some Saints fans ask why so many players don't seem to leave the likes of Stoke or Swansea, the answer is simple, they have not produced the array of talent that we have and certainly not in the same numbers.

The stark reality though is that we have to do this to be able to compete in the Premier League, we cannot match the big six clubs in terms of income through the normal channels, we have to generate ours through the buying and selling of players.

That is not going to please the supporters, but they should consider the fact that if we had not had that fire sale of 2014, then there is a good chance we would not have progressed as we have done in the following three seasons, it has enabled us to build a squad and not a team.

But this strategy has to be implemented on our terms, we cannot have players snapping their fingers and demanding to leave at the drop of a hat, we have made it clear that yes our strategy involves letting a player go when the price is right, that helps us sign the best young talent as they know we will further their careers, some will moan that we are being used as a stepping stone, but that is reality we do not have the resources of any of those top six clubs.

But sometimes the club has to stand firm, they have the history of doing so, in 2014 Morgan Schneiderlin was told he could not leave and in 2015 it was the same scenario with Victor Wanyama, both of these issues were very similar to what is happening now with Virgil Van Dijk, the players back then were both unsettled by underhand dealings, both told Saints they would not play and missed games and ultimately both were told that they would have to play another season and found they were under contract.

That is the situation now with Virgil Van Dijk, he was happy to sign a six year deal barely 12 months ago, he was happy for Saints to keep paying him for the last six months when he was injured, so why should it be unfair for the club to ask him to stay and honour that contract for a little while longer.

The truth is that if Liverpool had gone about things in the right manner and Van Dijk too, then the chances are that this deal would have been done this summer, it is likely that a bid of £70 million would have been attractive too us, we could have sold him on and repeatd the process that we have done so well over the past few seasons and in doing so strengthened the squad, every player has his price and if we receive over that price then it is good business, especially when that player has been injured for the last six months with no guarantees he will be the same player.

But this has not been done in the right manner and now Saints have to make a stand and refuse to sell Van Dijk to Liverpool, the rest of football are watching us and it would be fair to say that most of them will be hoping that we strike a blow for the underdog and show the so called big clubs that we cannot be rolled over at their will.

Most of the Saints fans I have spoken too would rather see Virgil Van Dijk train on his own for the rest of the season and to coin a now outdated phrase "rot in the reserves"

I don't blame Virgil Van Dijk for wanting to leave, I dont blame him for asking to leave, however he should be professional and he should know that having signed a contract he should be prepared to honour it, football is nothing more than a business these days, its not personal, but players have to behave like adults and not petulant children.

Behind the scenes now Saints will be quietly going on with things and talking to the player and waiting for Liverpool to come in with what will almost certainly be a derisory bid to inflame the situation.

But they need to also be very public in what they are going to do, they have already stated on many occasions that they will not sell Van Dijk, so they have to stick to their guns.

The reality though is that we have to do what is best for Southampton Football Club and should the right bid come in then we have to weigh up the situation, that will not please the fans, but it is a reality, but what should also be a reality is that Van Dijk is not sold unless that fee is substantially over his value, the fans will be agrieved and rightly so if we let him go for £60 million, it needs to be nothing short of £75-80 million.

This is going to be an interesting month, it is crucial for the club to keep the supporters firmly behind them and not going into meltdown, what they need to do is clear, we now need Les Reed and Ralph Krueger to show they mean business.

Photo: Action Images

SaintPaulVW added 10:27 - Jul 22 I think we've done some good things so far, changing the manager, which I don't totally agree with but it shows things werent working out and a change needed to be made, getting players signed to longer deals etc. Now need to show our ambition to stay on course with a couple of good signings. Board do need to show that not selling players unless it's totally on our terms is all part of the strategy. £60 million now looks cheap and even if Lpool make an offer I bet it isn't that much. Hope Virgil gets his head together soon. But yes should stay in reserves/solitary confinement! rather than be sold on any other terms than the best for us. Hopefully he'll see sense soon.

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SaintPaulVW added 10:28 - Jul 22 And we'll get at least another season of his best out of him
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Gadge60 added 10:33 - Jul 22 Entirely agree. I am surprised that owing to past experience there isn't a 'Not in the right frame of mind to play' clause in player contracts that withholds pay. Why should he get 60K (or whatever he is on) a week when he is not even prepared to play?
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RogerToye added 10:38 - Jul 22 we had an average season with him out of it the two centre backs stepped out as we was out for half of it wonder if he will injure again toby loveren and now VVD can't seem to hold quality centre backs as they are rare well done SAINTS for spotting the talent and not standing in there way Lovren not the same player toby also injured for a good portion of the season, I say hold out to highest bidder hope he goes abroad or keep him at the club repairing and restoring him that's the saints way

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steadyeddie added 11:01 - Jul 22 Good Piece Nick. I had a feeling this was going to Rumble on, and sure enough yesterday's announcement was whilst disappointing, not surprising. As you quite rightly stated if Liverpool had not gone with the illegal approach, and then fanned he flames through their Scouse Media Friends, it would have been sorted by now. Another Summer of Players acting like Petulant Children, and not Adults - but this one seems different and I hope the Club stance of Training by his-self wakes "the Boy" up from his self inflicted banishment.

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steadyeddie added 11:02 - Jul 22 Good Piece Nick. I had a feeling this was going to Rumble on, and sure enough yesterday's announcement was whilst disappointing, not surprising. As you quite rightly stated if Liverpool had not gone with the illegal approach, and then fanned he flames through their Scouse Media Friends, it would have been sorted by now. Another Summer of Players acting like Petulant Children, and not Adults - but this one seems different and I hope the Club stance of Training by his-self wakes "the Boy" up from his self inflicted banishment.

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landerwal added 11:28 - Jul 22 Saints were joint 4th last season in keeping clean sheets. Six of them were in the 21 games with VVD in the team pre Leicester and six in the last 16 games without VVD. You can read into this as you will, but I feel our problems last season were never in defence but in goals scored and to a lesser extent, midfield. I don't want to see VVD go, but if he does for at least £60m+, it will at least mean we can buy in quality where they are needed, for midfield and attack.

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ronrulesok added 12:40 - Jul 22 No one has mentioned the van dyke agent. Same one as Ron moved to just before his sudden change of heart about seeing out his contract with us. Virgil changed agent after signing his six year deal and surprise surprise now the agent wants a bit of the action. Not prepared to hang around for 6 years he starts earning big bucks. Virgil must be forced to request a transfer. This will ensure he is no better off if he moves this year or next. I have to say I agree that my enthusiasm for watching football is fading fast. I am seriously considering supporting my local team where I can walk to the ground and see what os often a better game.

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SanMarco added 13:25 - Jul 22 Good point about the agent ronrulesok. This is all set up for a 'low' Liverpool bid of, say, 50m (probably involving a player exchange) with us 'holding out' for 55m or something. THIS IS A BIG MOMENT for the club - if VVD does go to Liverpool this summer then any player joining us knows that he can do what he wants, when he wants it, and get his way. The very bottom line is that VVD MUST put in a formal transfer request - if he goes to Liverpool (or anywhere else for that matter) and pockets several million (shared with agent) to 'compensate' him for being 'forced' to move that will be a defining moment for me and I suspect a lot of others. Also - if he 'refuses to play' can we not only let him rot but do it without paying him - as, unless I am naive and confused, he gets all that money on the understanding that he is 'available for selection'....

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pete_boggs added 13:27 - Jul 22 Would it be worth a big drop in our Premier League position to show the world what we're made of by ostracizing VvD? Also why wasn't this transfer stance adopted earlier with Lovren etc where the player wasn't so valuable or important to the squad, results and morale? Surely this is a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. This is Reed's past mistakes coming home to roost and hopefully Kruger will intervene again and retire him early.

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Redrum added 13:58 - Jul 22 This is crazy. You would rather pay a good player thousands for doing nothing? The club should loyal to the fans and demand as much money as they can.He's already showing what kind of of unprofessional persion he is.I know its frustrating with good players moving on but the most important thing is a postive professional spirit in the squad.The fans are the most important and using the money wisely will only be a good thing

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Redrum added 14:02 - Jul 22 I also think that clauses should be put into contracts that do not pay players who refuse to play.
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highfield49 added 14:03 - Jul 22 Yup, I want the club to stand strong and refuse any offer of less than £85m. However, seeing as no club has yet tabled an offer, that remains irrelevant at present.
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bstokesaint added 14:27 - Jul 22 As SanMarco says this is a defining moment for the club. For me it's a put up or shut up moment. Come on you underhand Scouse mob. Do things properly. Put in a silly bid, we can then turn it down and ask for a true price, or at a premium given the nonsense you've contributed to our pre season. Then you pay the £80m or whatever it is or bu66er off.
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ExiledSupporter added 15:06 - Jul 22 What we need to do is to sign one very good centreback now and borrow another, to replace Fonte and probably VVD (by the end of next season). [It makes you wonder how short sighted we may have been about letting Cacerres go last season - all that is still rather puzzling to me]. In that way we would not necessarily have to pay too inflated prices, because we had already pocketed a mountain of cash that sellers wanted to extract from us. I'm not discounting the virtues of Stephens, Yoshida or even Gardos in suggesting this, though I think the latter should go out on loan. This would give us flexibility in cover terms and increase our chances of playing tough with bidders and VVD himself. No chance of being perceived as anything other than a selling club if we cave into the Scouse gits on this occasion; if we flinch and/or don'd get a punitive size of fee for VVD we will never be credible as a club and we will be admitting our lack of ambition. The continued lack of any apparent incoming activity is very worrying with many good and perhaps affordable players having moved already.. In the PL standing still is effectively going backwards - doing not enough will show that we did well over the last few seasons because the big six (or should that now be 7 thanks to RK's deals at Everton) had inconsistent seasons, but now seem to have got their act together, just as we seem to be dormant or complacent.

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helpineedsomebody added 16:12 - Jul 22 southampton fc have sold every tom dick&harry inthe past 4 seasons do you honestly believe that they will put a player on the school run for the next 4 seasons when if they can get a huge transfer fee it will pay off the clubs dedt + money for some more players it will be a huge loss for the team & the supporters but for me i would grant him his wish to go & we all move on

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Gizzle007 added 18:07 - Jul 22 Also this season is build up to world cup for every player so every player will want to earn there place so let him sulk for the moment he will come round
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BoondockSaint added 23:27 - Jul 22 Loan him out to a second division team. I'm sure the opposition will love playing against a prima dona from the Prem! If he refuses, he doesn't get paid. Sell to anyone but the Scouse, and not at a discount, as the buyer will just flip him to the Scouse and make a profit.
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SaintBrock added 09:27 - Jul 23 Seems highly unlikely to me that we will ever see van Dyke play for Saints again. For starters there is so much vitriol coming from fans that one doubts even VVD could cope with such hostility the minute he stepped onto the pitch. Whatever stance the club take they will realise they face an impossible task of "trying to get his head straight and constant booing of their star player would be untenable as a PR exercise and the morale of other players. No doubt the van Dyke's are keeping busy whilst he is not training checking out the best schools around Merseyside for the September term and buying a home in the right catchment area.

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LordDZLucan added 14:51 - Jul 23 It's quite simple. If van Dijk allows Saints to negotiate with other clubs and to arrange a move that is in the best interests of the club as well as the player (i.e. we get the highest transfer fee we can) then he can leave with the best wishes of everybody at Saints and he receives his 10% of the transfer fee. If he insists on going to Liverpool, meaning that we can't get full market value for him because there is no auction, then van Dijk has to put in a transfer request thereby giving up his 10%. He seems to want to have his cake and eat it (i.e. go to Liverpool and still get his 10%). To allow him to do that would set a very, very dangerous precedent and is something the club just can't agree to.

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Jesus_02 added 09:57 - Jul 24 I am seriously surprised that no-one else has come in for him. I am also surprised that saints haven't pursued the complaint, especially as the player has been unsettled enough to go on strike. The very fact that the player has become so unsettled with Liverpool not even making an approach is surely self evident.
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Sanguin added 10:17 - Jul 24 Just to clarify, I don’t think he’s gone on strike and is refusing to play. He’s said he wants to leave and so Pellegrino is forcing him to train alone until he gets his head straight. We can assume the same thing happened with Wanyama when he was ‘ill’, but the approach from management is different this time round. It might take the transfer window closing to resolve this. It would be really frustrating to have another star player unavailable for the beginning of the season due to being unsettled. If Wanyama had been with it a couple of season ago then we could’ve beaten Midtjylland and qualified for the Europa League group stages. Hopefully van Dijk doesn’t do a Wanyama and petulantly put in poor performances for the rest of the season.

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