There has been plenty of media reports about Kyle Walker Peters and moves to West Ham or Tottenham Hotspur, but little has been seen of him in Southampton's pre season, so what is happening with one of our most important players.

Almost as soon as the dust had died down on our victory at Wembley, the speculation started that Kyle Walker Peters would be joining either West Ham United or Tottenham Hotspur during the summer transfer window.

With one year left on his contract, Saints have a dilemma, do they cash in on him now or do they risk losing him next summer for nothing, as happened with Che Adams this year.

With a value of around £20 million, that is a substantial amount to lose out on and a month or so ago it seemed that Saints were resigned to losing KWP, signing Japanese right back Yuri Saguwara.

But it seems that no one is willing to match the £20 million starting price, in truth a snip for a player who Saints signed from Spurs in 2020 for around £13 million, then he was player who at 23 had barely played a game for Spurs and now he is a player who has been capped by England and has 115 Premier League games to his name plus last season's Championship campaign.

Yet that doesn't seem to have pushed up his value by much more than £7 million, so I would suggest that Southampton are not asking an overinflated price for the player.

Spurs interest ended almost before the transfer window opened, but all reports in July were saying that KWP was on the verge of joining West Ham, but in the past fortnight the Hammers appeared to have cooled their interest.

They have seemingly moved on from KWP and the latest to be linked is Aaron Wan-Bissaka who at a similar age and appearances as KWP and a similar market value, suggests that something has gone wrong with the deal between Saints and West Ham. As I type reports have come through that the Wan-Bissaka deal is hitting a hitch due to the players demands that Manchester United pay off his contract.

But the question on all Southampton supporters lips is just where is Kyle Walker Peters, the only statement made by Saints boss Russell Martin is very ambiguous.

Speaking live on Sky Sports, Martin had discussed the future of the player and suggested that there was a lot of interest in him this summer...

"We have a lot of interest in him as we did last summer, and then Kyle ended up staying, maybe to the surprise of everyone, myself included. He was amazing for us last season, he did incredibly well, he is a superbly talented person."

But no mention as to why Walker-Peters has not appeared in any of the five pre season friendlies played by the club so far, nor why he doesn't seem to have gone to the club's training camp in Spain.

In simple terms the club or player are saying little about the situation, there has been no mention of any injury and Russell Martin has updated the media on other members of his squad on the injury list Adam Lallana & Ross Stewart for example, but nothing on KWP.

So if he isn't injured why has he not featured in any of the pre season games ? Flynn Downes travelled with West Ham to their training camp only days before he signed for us and Matt O'Riley seemingly our number one target played for Celtic at the weekend.

So why is KWP not involved with our pre season, is their some issue behind the scenes that neither party is saying anything about.

With a little over 3 weeks left in the transfer window, the bigger question will be what will happen if West Ham or for that matter another club do not make a move for the player.

That seemed to be the case last season, when most assumed that KWP would leave the club after the relegation to the Championship, he ended up staying, but back then despite his future being up in the air, he played a full part in pre season and started the games in the weeks before the window shut.

So why is this not the case this year ?

It would have been simple to put to bed speculation if it was something innocuous, so the silence suggests something a lot more problematic, that does not necessarily mean that there is an issue between KWP & Southampton, it could be other issues, perhaps he has picked up an injury ? perhaps he failed his medical at West Ham ? perhaps they were not willing to meet what is a very fair price for the player, hence their pulling out of the deal.

There is something going on in the background that is not right and the silence only adds to the speculation.

If KWP does have to stay has he done any pre season ? could he step straight back into the squad ?

All this will become apparent in the next few weeks.

Photo: Action Images

Colburn added 11:05 - Aug 6 It’s a lot for a guy with 1 year left on his contract, we will be lucky to get 15..
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Bowlercow added 11:16 - Aug 6 KWP would fit into any PL side that is looking to finish between eighth and fourteenth Us for example. I would love to see him signe a new deal and accept that we are his level.
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Toussaint added 11:54 - Aug 6 Strange one , hes in all the recent training pictures tho , even in Spain he was there
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JoeEgg added 12:14 - Aug 6 Rumour has it he's gone on a training course for potential goalkeepers.
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WestSussexSaint added 12:43 - Aug 6 I think you are looking for drama where there isn’t really any. It’s no secret that Saints would happily sell KWP if the offer was right. I’m sure KWP won’t be adverse to a move if the wages are better than Saints can afford. So it makes sense for him not to be included in the preseason plans as it protects him from injury which could scupper any deal and also gives game time to others who are more likely to be here in the longer term. If KWP doesn’t move then it’s good news and he shouldn’t be adversely affected by lack of involvement in preseason given he knows the system. I guess we will only know for sure once the transfer window shuts.

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ElSanto added 13:11 - Aug 6 I think we are telling him he won't be playing next year now we have bought Sugawara. I think the club, now with a replacement bought really don't want him running down his contract. I also think they NEED him to be sold in order to get their other top targets like O'Riley or Fabio C. I love him and wouldn't mind him staying and fighting for his place or moving Sugawara in front of him. He could be the difference in staying up with his experience and quality - which could in turn be a good financial decision, especially if he does sign a new contract. But I think he is a goner :(

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derbydog added 16:37 - Aug 6 The most logical reason is that we don’t want another Che situation, losing a good player for no fee. So, find another club who will pay us a fee or sign another contract with us. And you won’t be playing for us until one of those two things has happened. There is an obvious way out of this impasse — sign a contract with a release clause acceptable to Saints and Kyle. Then get on with life until someone comes in for him.

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Monksway added 19:34 - Aug 6 Sure I read that there was an agreement that he would train but wouldn't play matches given the uncertainty. Saints want to sell him, KWP doesn't want to sign a new contract and is probably quite happy to stay and go on a free next year like Adams. Saints don't want to give him away for very little but I suspect when push comes to shove at the end of the transfer window he will go for £10-15 million. Personally if Saints could manage it I'd keep him as an attacking wide player. We will be defending and doubling up a lot this year and KWP is great going forward with an end product.

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