With the England squad due home from Brazil later this week, Liverpool are winding up to launch a final assault on St Mary's to sign Adam Lallana.
The Merseyside club tried to push through a deal in the week leading up to the squad leaving for Brazil and the question Adam Lallana must ask himself is whether his seemingly eagerness to try and push it through, even to go as far as to have a medical in Miami cost him game time in the two England openers, the England manager must not have been impressed with a player relatively new to the squad preferring to focus on a big money move rather than concentrate on the World Cup.
Now with England's participation in the tournament about to end, the question will be whether Liverpool are as keen as before and whether their valuation meets with Saints.
The press have reported that the big stumbling block will be the fact that Saints will want at least £30 million for the player, whilst Liverpool are not prepared to spend that much, the Sunday tabloids have suggested that Liverpool's big bid, allegedly their final bid, will be £20 million plus Fabio Borini, given that Borini signed for Liverpool two years ago for around £10.5 million and that his two seasons at the club have not been outstanding success's, his value will have dropped meaning that the total fee will be less than the Saints valuation.
Personally I would not be adverse to Borini being included in the deal, but his value should be perhaps half of the amount he joined Liverpool for, his first season at Anfield was blighted by injury meaning he never really got going, however last season he had a reasonable time at Sunderland on loan, albeit playing mostly in a side that for long periods looked certs for relegation.
But the player is still only 23 and he has shown he can score goals, Saints do need to increase their attacking options and at the right price Borini could be a decent addition, however his wages might be a stumbling block, it was widely reported that at Parma he was on a deal that rose every year, assuming he took no drop to join Liverpool this season his Parma contract would have seen him on around £60k a week for this season, far more than perhaps Saints would be prepared to pay for a player with his track record.
In the next few weeks we will see firstly how determined Liverpool are to get Lallana and secondly how desperately he wants to go, Lallana himself was quoted as saying he was looking forward to meeting Ronald Koeman and speaking to him, whether that was just to confirm he wants to move or whether he is open to hearing what the Dutchman has to say before making his mind up is open to speculation.