Liverpool and Leicester City are reported as being about to lock horns as they battle to sign Saints player of the season Shane Long, but are they having a laugh !
Ironically when Shane Long joined Saints from Hull City two years ago many Saints supporters were expressing exactly the same view £12 million for Shane Long, you are having a laugh !
I was not one of them, at the time I pointed out that the going rate for a striker who would get you around 10 goals in the Premier League would cost you that amount, after all Lukaku who had scored 15 goals in the previous season had gone to Everton for £28 million.
We soon found out though that Long's game was about more than just his strike rate, he brought something else to the squad, a work rate that was second to none and an ability to close down defenders and create openings for others.
Often though that would initially go unoticed by some Saints fans, what Long did was not just about delivering the ball for an assist, but in winning the ball or pressurising the opposition that would lead to a goal 3 or 4 passes up the line.
Ironically perhaps Long's finest game for the club is one that is remembered most for Sadio Mane scoring the fastest ever Premier League hat trick against Aston Villa in 2014/15, Mane took all the plaudits but it was Long at the heart of the moves that created the goals for the Senegalese striker, including one where Long tackled the keeper to leave the ball set up for Mane.
People also forget he scored twice in that game as well including the goal of the game from 40 yards out.
So when it is rumoured in the press that Liverpool or Leicester are about to make a £11 million bid for Long's services, either the reports are total tosh or the hack who has written it has not done his homework.
In short if Shane Long was worth £12 million two years ago before he had really came into his own, then his value has certainly not dropped in that period, one that he is in the form of his life.
So the Reds and the Foxes need to have a rethink if they want to prise Shane Long from St Mary's, with two years on his contract Saints are under no pressure to sell, after his form last season it will take a bid approaching £20 million to make Saints sit up and listen to offers.
Every player has his price, but Shane Long's to Southampton Football Club is not a paltry £11 million, less than what we paid.