Earlier this afternoon the media went big on the news that Everton had agreed a deal with Saints to release Ronald Koeman from his contract, now Everton themselves have denied this is the case.
This is the strangest case of a manager being poached from Saints I have ever seen and believe me in the past 25 years since Chris Nicholl left the club I have seen a few.
Basically when a manager is wanted by another club he makes it very clear to his current club that he wants to go, they then reach an agreement regarding his contract and within 48 hours the deal is usually complete.
That is certainly what Ronald Koeman's agent thought when he started to brief the press last Thursday that he and Koeman were in talks with Everton.
Indeed he told the media on Saturday evening that both Everton and Koeman had reached agreement although he quickly back tracked when he realised he was admitting breaching the rules.
But even so it was expected to go through by Sunday evening and then Monday, before it was announced that Koeman had gone on holiday.
Well in any business it is very strange when one of the parties suddenly ups sticks and announces they are going on holiday half way through discussions there is plenty of time for that when the signatures are on the paper.
But that is the case with no one really knowing what the state of play is in the situation.
Saints appear to be standing fast and demanding compensation around double of Koeman's salary, they seem determined to put up a battle and almost saying to Everton that unless its worth their while they are prepared to let Koeman see out the last year of his contract virtually on gardening leave.
But strangely they have stopped short of saying this and are almost playing it with kid gloves when dealing with Koeman leading to speculation that Koeman himself is not completely happy with the move and is perhaps having second thoughts, hence the holiday to give him time.
That time gives Saints time to prepare their options and although they are not handing Koeman ultimatums, it is clear that they are not being easily rolled over, they are confident in their position and what they are doing, they seem relaxed that they have a good replacement lined up and are doing things on their terms and not Everton's or indeed Koeman or his agent.
The smart money is on this deal happening, but don't blame Southampton FC if it does, Koeman has been blinded by money.
Meanwhile Everton are not happy, they thought the deal would be done days ago, they thought that Saints would lay down and roll over and they certainly did not expect Ronald Koeman to go off on hoilday at a crucial time.
This has lead to nerves on all sides, yes Everton have a deal agreed between themselves and Koeman & his agent, but a deal agreed is not a deal signed as Saints have found out over the last few weeks.
The longer it drags on the more complicated it will get, will Everton still feel Koeman is their man if he is stalling and will Koeman be confident that Everton are the right club for him if they cannot agree a deal with Saints ?
All will soon be revealed.