Saints were linked with Celtic central defender Virgil Van Dijk back in the summer but they are rumoured to be looking to sign the player in the next transfer window

Saints were unable to sign Van Dink back in the summer of 2014 and instead turned their attentions to Toby Alderweireld and the rest is history, however it is looking increasingly like Athletico Madrid will pay Saints the money to cancel the permanent arrangement and put the player out to auction with Saints set to lose out, that being the case it seems Saints are already looking to sign his replacement.

Everton and Sunderland in January made enquiries to Celtic but they were quoted a similar price to Saints last summer of £10 million and it will need that sort of fee to entice the Glasgow club to sell.

Photo: Action Images

perazi added 07:50 - Feb 25 I think it would be money well spent. Shame about the likely exit of Toby, but the conditions of his contract and his form make us a long shot to hang on to him. I must say VVD looks a quality player - very athletic, covers the ground quickly, strong in the air and looks composed on the ball. I know it's only the SPL but he looks a class player, just like Victor did, and is.

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HoveSaint added 09:17 - Feb 25 Ummm Toby has a say here as well So before we give up all hope that Toby will certainly leave lets see where we finish and then what the price for Toby is compared to his age and value to the club, before we just chuck in the towel. This is a bad case of twitching to the Daily Mail speculation as opposed to what is really happening behind the scenes, of which we know very little (and like any business, it needs to stay that way). Up to now with the new management we seem to be doing pretty well?

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stmichael added 10:19 - Feb 25 What would Toby be worth if sold by Athletico? 15 million tops I would say. Given that we will get 2 million from them anyway that brings it down to 13 million. We just paid 10 million for Bertrand. Don't see why we shouldn't pay 13 for Toby. Its going to cost 10 for VVD so stump up the extra 3 and be done with it. The main issue is whether Toby wants to stay here.
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Santos added 13:40 - Feb 25 stmichael think you have got it spot on. Will depend on who comes in for Toby and where he wants to go.
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Zambucco added 18:26 - Feb 25 I like VVD and think he will be an astute buy for us. I also think it will show Toby our intentions, and possibly this will make him stay for the challenge?
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Coverly added 06:37 - Feb 26 Toby is a cracking player and quite possibly the best ball playing CB we've seen since Killer Svensson, but he might also share Killer's habit of frequently breaking down with injuries. This is perhaps why Athletico Madrid were so keen to offload him onto us in the first place. This might also be the "Saints Effect", which seemingly inflates any transfer fee, tempting AM to pay us off and sell him somewhere else (Aresenal/Liverpool/Spurs) for twice the agreed price. Half a decent season in a Saints shirt will seemingly do that in the current market, go ask Lovren's agent! Or this could just be bored Fleet Street hacks inventing something to fill their column inches, who really knows? ;-)

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