The Liverpool Echo has understandably added its half penneth to the news that Virgil Van Dijk will return to the Saints squad, for all this and the latest views from around the net on the situation read on.
The Liverpool Echo have run with the headline that Virgil Van Dijk is set for showdown talks this week with Mauricio Pellegrino, the paper stays with the stance that Liverpool will only step in should Saints decide to sell and that they would be prepared to shatter their transfer record. They also point out that Van Dijk hasn't played since January and is short of match fitness which is no good to Saints or Liverpool should the situation drag on.
Liverpool fan website Rousing The Kop claim that Pellegrino is planning for life without Van Dijk in their headline, the story itself leads with the fact that this is not actually new news and is mainly based on comments in our own Daily Echo.
They focus on these lines.
Manager Mauricio Pellegrino is said to have "been planning on life without him, either in the long or short term.”
Saints are hopeful of him rejoining the squad and staying put.
What interests them are the words long term and hopeful and they then look to the fact that Saints are chasing Kevin Wimmer from Spurs as a sign that we are softening our stance, of course if they did a bit more research they would know that we have yet to replace Jose Fonte.
They are also confused about why their club are not bidding for a player who openly wants to join them by stating
"While this would normally be a good thing, the club’s attempts to broker a deal are stuck in limbo until the Saints agree to sell. With no bids being made from other clubs due to their knowledge that the player only wants Liverpool, Southampton don’t exactly have anything to accept meaning that Liverpool cannot join in on any bidding war."
The answer is simple, Liverpool of course know they are on dodgy ground should they make a bid and that they could well be hauled before the Premier League should they do so, otherwise why do they not just slap an offer on the tabe and start talking.
The Metro also focus on comments in the Daily Echo, but they have a different slant from the straw clyutching on Liverpool fan sites, they feel that Saints are growing in confidence that the player will stay at St Mary's and that the club won't back down.
The Metro also feel that Liverpool's none bidding is significant and that it strengthens Saints position in that how can they sell a player that supposedly no one wants to buy as there are no offers on the table and that Van Dijk hass no choice but to knuckle down and get on with things.
But perhaps the most bizarre view on why Liverpool are not bidding comes from ESPN's Gabrielle Marcotti who also has spouted off on Talksport in the past he claims that Liverpool are spot on in their handling of the situation.
Marcotti says that Liverpool are aware that there is not actually a lot of interest in Van Dijk from elsewhere and that the Anfield club are actually staying patient so that with no other offers Saints are forced to sell to them cheaply.
This theory might actually hold water if we actually wanted to sell the player, but the reality is that we do not want to and because of their behaviour over the past months we dont want to sell him to Liverpool even if we did.
If we get a cut price bid then we will easily bat it off and even Virgil Van Dijk might be questioning Liverpool's ambition if they are willing to risk not only his fitness for the season as he is needed by the Netherlands for a do or die World Cup qualifyer in September but his career in general to save a few pounds.
With Saints at te moment having to pay Van Dijk 10% of any deal and Celtic 15% it is not going to be attractive to us to accept anything belo £70 million, if they think we will accept much less then they are truly deluded.
So the answer is this morning that there is little more to report on the situation until we know if Van Dijk has resumed training with Saints, but it does show how every media outlet will view the same story differently.
Whether it is the Liverpool Echo who are basically doing some PR for their club or indeed the Daily Echo doing it for theirs, or a Liverpool fan site trying to find something that suggests this deal might happen as they become more desperate or even the national journalists like Marcotti who have to make a headline out of everything.