Tottenham Hotspur have a long history of making derisory offers for Southampton players and it looks like they are up to their old tricks again.
Recent reports suggested that Saints were willing to open discussions with Tottenham Hotspur for Pierre Emile Hojbjerg at a starting price of £35 million for a player who has been describes as the North London club's Number 1 target for the summer in the many media reports over the past few months many planted by someone unknown in order to unsettle the player himself.
Spurs are being reported in the times to value Hojbjerg at only £20 million which will upset their supporters who will be dismayed to learn that the extent of their club's ambitions is such a paltry figure.
But of course Spurs value him a lot higher than that, Saints fans slate Liverpool for their supposed pillaging of our squad a few years ago, but in fairness to the Merseyside club they didn't baulk about the price, of course they haggled, but they came in with an offer that was in sight of Saints valuation and so was realistic enough to talk over and come to an arrangement.
But this has not been the way at Spurs for some time, they look to unsettle players in the media and then having done that they then make derisory offers hoping that the selling club now with a disgruntled player on their books will look to get rid of cheaply.
We can trace that back to Neil Ruddock back in 1992 when Spurs valuation for the player who was now out of contract( transfer fees were still payable in that situation back then) was £200,000 exactly the same price they had sold him to us for 3 years earlier as a 20 year old who was not eeven into double figures for them in terms of appearances.
Back then it went to a tribunal and they knew tribunas set the price low and we got a paltry £750,000 k for a player who they sold on after just one season for almost four times that figure.
9 years later and they poached Glenn Hoddle in a despicable manner leaking to the media that he was in talks with them, illegal I may add and thus burning his bridges at Saints, six months later they used their now infamous unsettling tactics on Dean Richards who like Virgil Van Dijk 15 years later had only just signed a new contract but suddenly wanted to break that and leave, in fairness to Rupert Lowe at the time he stood firm and got top dollar from them but it left a sour taste in the mouth and neither Hoddle or Richards were ever welcomed back at St Mary's again.
Mauricio Pochettino left Saints for Spurs in a similar vein to Hoddle and he like his predecessor came back for some of his players, both Morgan Schneiderlin and Jay Rodriguez were targeted within a month or so of Pochettino leaving Saints, Saints have been vilified by some as a selling club, but they held firm with both, leading to Schneiderlin's bitter tweet telling the World "6 years of an amazing journey #saintsfc DESTROYED in 1 hour !!!”
Neither player ended up at Spurs but one player who did was Victor Wanyama who was targeted by Spurs in the summer of 2015, again derisory money was offered for a player who by his outbursts was clearly unsettled, Saints stood firm and for a while so did Wanyama who missed not only Premier League action but did not travel to Midjytland in a vital Europa League 2nd leg tie which was lost.
Spurs got their man a year later with a year left on his contract for £11 million, a million and a half less than Saints had paid 3 years earlier for a player with no Premier League experience, some would say the Spurs way.
So when Saints fans vilify Liverpool for pillaging the club, they are way behind Spurs in terms of not only how long they have been doing it, but the manner in which they operate, Liverpool may be arrogant in the way they think they can march in and get what they want, but they don't play games when they do so, when they come to do business they arrive at the table to talk not play games.
When we read talks about Hojbjerg being the number one target for Tottenham we hoped that they would at least be realistic, but it seems they are up to their old tricks again and talking big but offering little to try and get the player on the cheap.
Of course this is the objective of every buying club, but if you want to get a deal done quickly then you keep negotiations smooth and cordial, but that is not the Spurs way.
So the two clubs are miles apart, according to some media sources it is because they do not have £35 million in cash, with Saints they were hoping to use Kyle Walker- Peters as a makeweight in the deal, but that is also being reported as being dead in the water with Saints not having agreed a deal that he can remain at St Mary's beyond July 1st to complete the season.
If Saints were not sure about KWP their decision will be perhaps now be made a lot easier if they feel they are being brow beaten by Spurs yet again, with Everton also said to be interested and even Newcastle if their proposed takeover goes through, there will be no shortage of buyers willing to pay cash and that will appeal more to Saints who do not appear to be convinced about Walker-Peters long term.