Liverpool fan websites are making hay whilst the sun shines claiming that Virgil Van Dijk not training with the Saints squad yesterday was evidence he would be joining Liverpool.
The good thing about Liverpool fan websites is they are very good at straw clutching, they have an ability to take any aspect of something that concerns their club and turn it into a positive.
I am not saying this is a bad thing, certainly having a fan base that is fanatical beyond positivity is a better option than having one where a fai proportion of it is keen to jump on their club's back at every opportunity.
Virgil Van Dijk's absence from the Saints squad to Liverpool fans is conclusive proof the deal is about to happen, but are they right ?
The stark answer is no, the news from Saints has always said that the plan this week was for Mauricio Pellegrino to meet with Van Dijk and talk to him about reintegrating back into the squad and training.
Given that the Saints squad were in France till Saturday evening, that meeting was highly unlikely to take place until Monday afternoon at the earliest after the first training session of the week had taken place.
Saints had never claimed that Van Dijk would return or indeed on what date, only that they would be speaking to the player, reiterating that their position remained unchanged and hoping that he would now be able to accept this and get his mental attitude focused on the coming season.
This being the case then Van Dijk's transfer to Liverpool is no more or no less likely to happen than it has been at anytime over the past three months.
Whether Van Dijk will return to training or whether he will continue to sit and wait to see if Saints capitulate will be a story that will run to 1st September, at the moment his next move if he doesn't return to training is to put in a transfer request, a move that will cost him personally £7 million.
anfieldhq.com who have carried the story that Van Dijk did not return to training yesterday quote their source as a user on SaintsWeb called Tom28 and back up his ITK status by claiming he is the man that first broke the story that Van Dijk had been removed from the squad 2 weeks ago.
anfieldhq and indeed all Liverpool fans would do well to ask themselves why their club has not actually bid for Van Dijk, why they have not put the £60 million the Liverpool Echo is quoting that they are willing to pay on the table and open negotiations with Saints ? rather than the line they have followed in using the media to try and force the player himself to demand the move.
The answer is appallingly that Liverpool know that any direct approach from them now would almost certainly trigger an investigation from the Premier League even if Saints did not make a further complaint.
Liverpool who have already been sanctioned for enticing academy players from other clubs in the Premier League, know that a transfer ban is likely if they make a direct approach to Southampton .
Their only hope is that Van Dijk can pressurise Saints into giving in and putting him up for sale thus Liverpool can then legitimately make an offer unsolicited.
This is quite frankly as I said earlier appalling and whilst I am sure that there are those Liverpool fans who themselves are not happy with the way their club has behaved, the majority on social media, many of whom have been no nearer to Liverpool than a Beatles album, revel in stirring up the situation.