Will Liverpool launch a big bid for Sadio Mane or does this rumour just like the Manchester United interest of the past year, not have any substance.

Liverpool are supposedly about to come in for Sadio Mane although apparently the £40 million minimum that Saints will demand for his services is more than the £30 million that Liverpool are said to be able to afford and the Merseyside club is well aware that spending £30 million is no guarantee the player will be a success, hence the unsold Benteke shirts in the club shop.

However perhaps there is leeway in that Saints could be interested in several of the Red's squad deemed surplus to requirements by Klopp, Christian Benteke could be a good replacement for Pelle should the Italian go, Jordan Ibe is another who could form part of a makeweight, not to mention that we could tempt Adam Lallana or Dejan Lovren back to the fold, both would be sold for the right price and a swap deal would suit Liverpool freeing up cash to use in other areas.

Liverpool do not have as much financial clout as they would like after Brendan Rodgers wasted so much of their cash over the last two seasons, ironically much of it came to St Mary's and thus directly contributed to our finishing above them for the first time ever back in May.

If Saints did sell Mane that would give them over £50 million to spend after the sale of Wanyama and the compensation for Ronald Koeman, that would allow us to again greatly strengthen the side in key areas, now all we need is a manager to spend it.

Photo: Action Images

LordDZLucan added 14:05 - Jun 24 Sounds great. We sell Mane and we get Benteke, Ibe and one or two others in return. The only problem is we don't pay Liverpool wages which means that none of their squad would want to come to us. Therefore we'll have to take cash and the process of buying new players and then getting them up to Premier League standard at which point other clubs poach them off us starts all over again. We have to find a way of hanging on to our talent otherwise we will never reach the top 4. Maybe we need to look at longer contracts. I notice that Victor has signed a 5 year contract at Tottenham!

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IanRC added 14:07 - Jun 24 I thing he is genuinely a potential world class player and I was hoping this would be the season he proved it. If he goes for less than the £40million talked about I will be very upset with those managing these affairs. I am and will hopefully remain a strong supporter of the present owner and the structure she has put in place but Les Read needs to look at his own position if this happens for the £30 million the press are quoting. He has already sold Wanyama for a ridiculously low fee to Levy's crowd, somebody better tell Hodgson he is not English before he tries to call him up ....

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SaintNick added 14:27 - Jun 24 Sadly in the Wanyama deal you can only sell him for the price someone is willing to pay, there was not a queue being formed to up the bidding, Spurs did their usual trick of offering a low amount, but just high enough to make it worth our while, no one else seemed interested
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IanRC added 14:29 - Jun 24 Nick, that is surprising though, even the papers were linking other clubs. Would have thought we could have waited a while to see if a better offer crystallized before cashing in at such a low price.
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SanMarco added 14:32 - Jun 24 Yes exactly Lord and Ian. Of course the bean counters' eyes will light up but if we really are making steady progress then the next step is to try out a simple word: it starts with 'n' and ends with the next letter in the alphabet. It is an option for us - it was with Victor but we rolled over and took the cash. The questions eventually, and I hope we have reached this point now, should be: 1 does the manager need/want him? and 2. does he fit in with how we want to play? Not how much can we get for him? The article treats Mane like a trinket on a market stall who will go if a buyer comes along and is willing to pay a certain price. It is within our power now (surely) to say "this player is NOT FOR SALE". If the new manager comes in and says 'get rid of Mane' then fine but until then...

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SanMarco added 14:35 - Jun 24 On the VW thing didn't Koeman say something that implied he'd promised him he could go. He said if he had a good season he might go somewhere better...
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LordDZLucan added 14:50 - Jun 24 I agree with SanMarco. The club needs to be more vocal in its desire to keep players. The silence gives other teams (and agents) encouragement to try to engineer something through the media. As well as Mane, Bertrand, Long and Tadic all have 2 years left on their contracts so expect the rumours about them to start flying around thick and fast after the Euros!
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theholsaints added 14:55 - Jun 24 Didn't Les Reed state at one point that SFC wouldn't sell to what they considered to be their own rivals in terms of finishing position...but would only sell to supposed top 4 clubs...by finishing above Liverhampton last season, does that not now include them!?! We are either doing incredibly well in the fact that we always have players to sell at a profit and managers who have to either pay out (MoPo) or clubs (Everton) that offer us compensation...but somewhere somehow the inability to keep a team together season after season is starting to grate...however, I am also quite convinced that the reason that all the players and mangers are doing so well and are so desirable to other PL clubs is because all of the staff at SFC maximising potential...with all the previous sales, MoPo and Lallama have done the best...Clyne too, but the others?!?!...would be good to see some of the academy come through...surely Reed will replace VW, as he didn't get a look in last season...

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law101 added 16:22 - Jun 24 I sadly think there is more to all of this. When Cortese left the club made a point of letting us all know that he left us in a less than ideal financial situation which the club said was under control. I think the buffers have come out in terms of our spending power and we just don't seem to have the ability to knock back bids like the other teams around us or compete in terms of spending power. That said who knows If West Ham's big money signings will bring them greater success. All I know is the teams around us are improving and building, and we have no manager and are selling our best players again. How long can this continue? I fear we are heading for a bottom half finish.

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BoondockSaint added 16:54 - Jun 24 Bloody hell, what is wrong with us? Vardy could go to Arsenal, but turns them down to stay-No one seems to want to stay in Southampton? Rafa stays with a relegated team that has one of the worst owners in England, and yet every well-regarded manager we approach slaps us down! Getting really sick of this. Just take some of the VW money and pay Mane more. If we lose him as well, it's a relegation fight this year.

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DPeps added 17:05 - Jun 24 This is being reported in more respectable media sources now, and we all know what happens next! Unless we have financial troubles I don't see the value in selling Mane at this stage. We could sell him next season for at least the amount we bought him for. The idea that a club's major source of income is from player sales is unrealistic if you want any stability or success. If you find a gem like Mane and you want to progress you don't cash in on the first chance. He might have had a 'bad' season in some people's opinion but he was our top goalscorer! People will say our system of selling and buying is working, and I'd agree, but what if last season we'd had a decent RB (Clyne), more cover in CB (Toby), and a more creative CM (Morgan)? Hindsight is a wonderful thing I know, but I hope the club thinks hard before agreeing to sell our key assets

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pintsizedsaint added 17:42 - Jun 24 I don't think this is new news. At the end of the season the Telegraph reported that Saints expected to sell Wanyama and Pelle and probably Mane - but only if somebody met their astronomical valuation for him. There you go - several weeks ago we knew of the three players Saints were happy to see go. Wanyama has gone and that's fair. Pelle is likely to go because he is reaching the twilight of his career. Mane is very good but erratic and not somebody who Saints see as one to build the squad around. If Liverpool want to pay a silly fee then so be it! I'm interested in the Liverpool fans comments: very few happy about this at all given the price quotes and the fact Liverpool are saying this is their "biggest signing" for the summer! If they pay £35-£40m then it really is the case that a Liverfool and his money are easily parted!

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SanMarco added 18:39 - Jun 24 pintsized: "expected to sell" is not the same as "wanted to sell". If the new manager is not keen on him then fine, accept the silly money. In my view "expected to sell" is a position of weakness: Surely if we are on a sound footing and are making progress then we have to arrive at a stage where we say no. Not sell the first three in the queue and then promise the fourth (ala MS and VW) that they can go next year. After the last couple of summers "progress" for me would be telling players we don't want to leave that they aren't leaving.

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BoondockSaint added 19:36 - Jun 24 I have to strongly disagree with you pintsized: Exactly who is a player we are going to build around? We are not :"building a squad"-just developing players, managers and backroom staff for the Scouse and Spuds. Oh, no! I just realized! I know who our next manager is going to be: Big Sam!!
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SanMarco added 21:04 - Jun 24 He'd keep us up Boondock!!
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Shano added 23:14 - Jun 24 Mane is the brightest diamond in our jewelry box of players.. The club should be wearing him with pride for for many years to come, not leaving him up on ebay transfer season on transfer season..
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pintsizedsaint added 09:55 - Jun 25 San Marco: it's clear they expected to sell Wanyama (and now have) and Pelle (likely he will go to Italy after Euros). They said they would only sell Mane if the right bid came in. This isn't a position of weakness, it's being sensible and playing the game. Wanyama didn't want to sign a new deal so he was always leaving. Pelle is fast reaching his twilight and he's not been consistent. I assume Saints see their future with Long and others. As I say Mane is not an exceptional player - he is very good though but if somebody wants to pay £35m then it makes sense to sell and use the money to strengthen. How is this a position of weakness? It's bloody solid sense. Bondock; VVD, Forster, Ward Prowse, are just a few players we are clearly keen to keep and build a squad around. I guess Saints see them as solid, high quality, consistent performers who will make the spine of our team and stay with us. As for being a feeder club for others, You've been reading the comments on the Daily Echo a bit too much mate. We all conveniently forget we made the same arguments when Lallana et al went to Liverpool - didn't we finish above them this year? Didn't they pay silly money for those players in order to do so? And just read comments from Liverpool fans - they think their team are being taken for a ride.

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