According to the Daily Mirror, Saints have turned down a £8 million bid for Shane Long as Jurgen Klopp seeks to end his goalscoring problem.
Seemingly when he took over from Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp found a little black book in his desk drawer.
That black book gave directions to Marchwood a suburb of Southampton where the Saints training ground Staplewood is situated and the positions of tree's overlooking the complex and which ones had the best views.
Klopp has already been busy in Marchwood it seems and the village council has already issued a pamphlet called "Don't mention the War" to ensure that the latest visitor from Merseyside won't be offended.
Local pubs have stocked up with Hofbrau and the Co Op has extra supplies of Industrial Strength Colgate & teeth whitener, however it is believed that Klopp has evaded attention by not staying in the village of Marchwood itself but in the mountains surrounding it.
That pinpoints his location to Spicers Hill in Totton, the nearest piece of high ground to Marchwood that could be said to resemble one of Klopp's beloved Alp's in his native Germany.
The art of secrecy has already paid dividends for Klopp and after Steven Caulker had a decent game in the Friday 5 a side's recently Klopp made his move albeit through QPR.
Now though Klopp is said to be returning to Marchwood with the regularity of his predecessor and given that unlike Deluded Brendan who bumbled his way around the village, Klopp has had the benefit of watching 3 episodes of Deutschland 83 on a Sunday night, his methods will be far more sophisticated albeit to a soundtrack of 99 Luft Ballons and Frankie Goes To Staplewood.
Now it seems the first serious shots are being fired and according to some national media sources Klopp has lodged an £8 million bid for Shane Long in a bid to solve his scoring problems.
There are a couple of things wrong with this bid though, firstly it is too small for Saints, Long is a vital part of the Saints squad and as such Ronald Koeman would want to recoup at least the £12 million spent on him in 2014, if we were to even consider selling him.
Secondly Long would be mad to even consider a move to Anfield, he would like Rickie Lambert before him, be going to fill a short term gap with no real long term prospects at Liverpool of playing regularly.
Long who will celebrate his 29th birthday this coming Friday at the team's hotel in Manchester ahead of the game at Old Trafford would by age alone not be a long term acquisition for Liverpool, but a stop gap for this season, whilst Klopp prepares his targets for the summer.
When he has acquired those targets, Shane like Lambert before him will find his chances for appearances extremely limited especialy in the Premier League.
Klopp knows thoug he has to get in a striker this window in a bid to try and get into the Europa League, if Liverpool manager that then £8 million will be a small price to pay for a quality striker who will then be needed next season in that competition, but if Liverpool fail to qualify then Long would surely be packing his bags again at some point next season.
Shane Long has always been a vital part of the Saints team, the mystery to me is why at certain times Ronald Koeman has used him so sparingly, that being the case if I was Long I would be perhaps considering my options in the fact that he does not owe anything to Koeman in terms of loyalty, he has not been as regular as his form has warranted and that being the case he may feel that Liverpool's bench is a better place than Saints one.