Why Southampton have no choice but to sell to Liverpool again
Published:Has a club ever been such a victim of it’s own success as Southampton?
During and after last season’s impressive eighth-placed finish, the dominoes have fallen all the way through the exit at St Mary’s.
It started with chairman Nicola Cortese then, one by one, ran through Mauricio Pochettino, Rickie Lambert, Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana.
Lambert and Lallana both travelled to Merseyside to join Brendan Rodgers’ revival of Liverpool and its seems the south coast club now have little choice but to sell yet another member of their playing staff to last season’s Premier League runners-up.
Dejan Lovren was the subject of a reported £20m bid from the Anfield club but those advances were rejected by the Saints.
Now though the Croatian centre-back has launched a scathing attack on his current employers, leaving the world in little doubt that a switch to the Reds is his preferred move this summer.
“It was unbelievable that a few days ago I had an offer of £20million. It was in the morning and by the afternoon the club had said I was not for sale. Frankly, my head is already at Liverpool,” he said.
With such strong statements being made, it’s clear that Lovren now has no intention of returning to Southampton this season. However, should Liverpool fail to meet the Saints’ £25m valuation of the defender, he have to.
Dimitar Berbatov and Gareth Bale at Spurs are both recent examples of how divisive having an happy camper among the ranks can be, which may mean Southampton lower their asking price to avoid having Lovren’s long face around their squad at the start of the campain.
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