It might not seem like it to Saints fans after the latest display of petulance from Virgil Van Dijk, but one Saints legend thinks that the tide is tuning Saints way.
Saints fans are fed up of looking at the internet. picking up the paper and reading social media headlines of how Virgil Van Dijk is certain to sign for Liverpool despite the little matter that he has a contract with Southampton FC, however Matt Le Tissier thinks that the pendulum is swinging in Saints direction as he told Talksport this morning.
Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast, Le Tissier said: "It’s been going on long enough, and he’s still here!
"He still wants to be on his own…and to be honest, that’s pretty unprofessional.
"He’s got four and a half weeks [until the end of the transfer window], but the club have been pretty insistent so far that he signed a five year contract and he’s going nowhere.
"If players have all the power, he would have gone by now — but it’s all rumbled on for a few weeks now and he hasn’t got his own way.
"Perhaps the tide might be turning a little bit. The fact a lot of clubs now are in a much healthier financial position means the power might just be shifting back to clubs if they want to dig their heels in.
"They’ve got the money, they’re not desperate to bag the £60million it would take to get him away from the club, and if Southampton feel like they want to make a stand with Van Dijk, they can.
"It’s a shame. It doesn’t look very good on the player, he’s got five years left and the only way he can be sold is if the club accept an offer for him — that hasn’t happened, so you have to get on with your job.
"I find it pretty distasteful when players start players start refusing to play for clubs when they’re paid very good money to be there.”
A very blunt and accurate description of what is becoming a sorry situation at St Mary's from a club legend who knows the meaning of loyalty.
The main message though was that if Saints had caved in to his demands then he would have been gone weeks ago and that with every day or week that goes by the player and especially Liverpool will become more desperate.
It is appalling that the player won't go as far as putting in a transfer request as as much as he would like to go to Anfield, at this moment in time he doesn't want to give up £7 million to do so.
Liverpool's behaviour is also appalling they are clearly speaking to the player and his agent behind the backs of Saints otherwise how would van Dijk know that anyone is actually interested in him, let be blunt, he would not be just demanding a move in the hope that someone comes in for him.
Liverpool will not bid at least at this stage as they will be worried that the FA and Premier League might step in and they are extremely worried about being hit by transfer sanctions, that is perhaps why they are getting the player to do their dirty work and try to force a move at the expense of his reputation, Liverpool will at least want to get near the end of the trasfer business and get other signings in rather than be sanctioned now whilst they still need to bring in players.
So this looks set to run and run at least till the end of the month and it does not look like being a happy ending, the only people coming out of this with credit are Southampton Football Club who have done nothing wrong in merely demanding that a player that they are paying extremely well fulfills his contract, they are refraining from getting involved and keeping their own counsel, at the moment they are handling Van Dijk with kid gloves, leaving the way open for a return to the fold, but their will come a time when they will play hardball.
When they do that most of football will want them to stand up strong, even if Van Dijk was to stay at St Marys and go on strike, his value would not drop too much between now and January, what would drop though would be his reputation and many big clubs would shy away and not want to touch him with a bargepole.
He will also not be very popular in Holland who face a do or die World Cup Qualifyer in the first week of September, they would have been hoping that Van Dijk would have had plenty of training and match practice between now and then, that looks highly unlikely and he could cost Holland qualification for the World Cup, possibly his only opportunity to play at one given his age when the 2022 finals come around.
But sadly this has been driven by money and a player who was once described by many as polite and courteous is now driven by his agent who being close to Liverpool Football Club is determined to get his client not into the best club in Europe, but into one that will reward both player and especially his agent the most handsomely.