According to the media Sadio Mane has told Saints he will not sign a new contract and will try to force a move in the January transfer window.

Manchester United, Chelsea & Bayern Munich are all being linked with a move for Sadio Mane and that is being fuelled in the press with stories that the Senegalese striker has told Saints that he will not sign a new deal.

That however will change nothing from a Saints perspective, Mane's deal does not run out till 2018 meaning that the club is under no pressure to sell for at least another 12-18 months.

That will probably not please Mane who seems set to try and force Saints to sell him in January.

There is of course the question of how much Saints will be offered, the club's strategy is to nurture players and then sell when they get offered far more than Mane's worth.

So what is his worth ? after all it was only just over a year ago that Mane was the target of abuse from a large section of the crowd who were decidedly underwhelmed by his performances in the first half of last season, in the second half he went on a couple of scoring bursts and they perhaps made his goal tally look better than it actually was.

This season he has been at times brilliant, but too often he has been average and in 20 games in the Premier League has only scored 3 times, one of those at Liverpool was basically making sure Ramirez's header went into the goal where it was already bound from 6 inches out.

Goals are of course only part of his game and as he showed against Arsenal he can provide as well as score.

So at this moment in time Mane's worth seems to be artificially high, Saints paid around £10 million, now he is worth more than that, but probably given his inconsistency it would really be little more than around £17 million, so if the £30 -35 million being bandied around in the press turns up on the table, then Saints would seriously have to consider it.

It the modern game, it is a fact of life that the so called big clubs and Spurs will try to buy any player that has a little purple patch and for clubs like Saints its about managing the departure of players, we have to adopt a long term strategy and that means sometimes selling when a silly offer is on the table.

That will lead to some supporters screaming and shouting, but this is reality, not the fantasy of being able to eep all your players and win the Champions League, Saints have to look at every individual player and know there worth and no when they have an offer that won't be matched.

Mane seems to be makinge it quite clear it is only a question of when and not if he goes, Saints need to keep in control of the situation and that could mean selling him now.

Photo: Action Images

ItchenNorth added 13:25 - Jan 6 Perhaps everyone should spend less time on Internet rumours and creating agendas that may not even actually exist; and spend more time backing the team each game. Get off your PCs and mobiles and loosen your larinks where it matters!
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SaintBrock added 16:49 - Jan 6 What everyone has forgotten to mention is apart from the balance of transfer fees in and out there is the TV money! The TV Money! It's massive and next year the bottom club will get more income form TV than the Cma]hampions did did five years ago so there is a massive elephant in our board room. Where is all the TV money going if it is not into a Swiss Bank Account? OK it's a privately owned club and they can do what they want and stuff what we fans would like but let's have enough of this nonsense that we cannot afford this and we cannot afford that; we can afford exactly what the owner wants to afford for HER club, no more - no less!

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IanRC added 23:13 - Jan 6 So we now believe what is reported in the media do we .... . I very much doubt he is angling for a January move and I would be very surprised if we could replace him with anyone as effective for anything like the price we would receive. He remains our best prospect by a considerable way if we have the skill to develop him.
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halftimeorange added 13:20 - Jan 7 We know little or nothing about what is going on behind the scenes at Saints, stories about Mane, in particular and Wanyama, who has allegedly publicly apologised for getting sent off, are merely media speculation. We have no idea how much money Ronald has been given to bolster the squad and we don't know whether he wants to anyway. As it stands, Mane has not said he wants out, Wanyama didn't need to apologise if he wants to go and Ronald says neither of them will be sold. One thing that is clear is that Ronald doesn't rate what's available in the academy so, if we do sell any of our hero players anytime soon, then consideration should be given to bringing in real talent in the way that Walcott and Lallana were acquired from other clubs. Only the close of this transfer window will disperse the hysteria once again surrounding the Saints.

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