The ante has been upped and Southampton's poker face stance could be about to pay dividends as Chelsea are said to have tabled a £48 million pound offer for midfielder Romeo Lavia.
Liverpool have been playing cat and mouse with Saints over their attempted signing of Romeo Lavia, they started out ridiculously low and instead of acting like a big club, have pestered Saints by just upping the offer a couple of million each time they come back.
The media have said that the Merseyside club have been playing on the players desire to join Liverpool and force Southampton's hand as they tried and failed to do in their pursuit of Virgil Van Dijk in the summer of 2017.
Now it seems their stance could blow up in their face according to Talksport who claim that Chelsea have gazumped Liverpool by slapping £48 million on the table for Lavia.
Chelsea head of recruitment is no stranger to Lavia, he helped develop him at Manchester City and in his brief time at St Mary's last summer was instrumental in bringing Lavia to Southampton.
Chelsea are now in the game and with Shields close to Lavia, they no longer have the players ear as they did.
From a Southampton perspective, the fee is now approaching the starting price of £50 million, a price that Chelsea were said to have come in with a late offer with last season.
Liverpool fans seem to be confused as to their thoughts on the situation, social media posts veer from "We don't want him anyway" to " We want him but not at that price" to the extreme of "Why are Liverpool acting like a bunch of amateurs and not the World giant that we believe they are "
Saints fans are braced for Romeo Lavia to leave the club, but the side showed they could win without him at Sheffield Wednesday, so things move on, the best part of £50 million for Lavia, should be joined by £30 million plus for James Ward Prowse from West Ham and adding to that the £35 million for Tino Livramento.
Good players all three of them, but with around £115 million in the bank, Saints can build a promotion challenging squad.