Ralph Hasenhuttl has said he will not be sold in this transfer window, but Leeds United don't seem to want to take no for an answer as it is reported that they have now been turned down for a third time.
Presumably it is not Leeds United or Saints who are telling the press that the Yorkshire club have had a third bid for Che Adams turned down, nor is it likely that either club would have revealed that it was for a loan deal for the rest of the season with an option to buy at £20 million if Leeds should be promoted to the Premier League.
So who is putting this information out in the press ? as explained yesterday it will be agents, possibly not even Adams agent, but one further down the chain desperate for this deal to kick off a domino effect in transfers.
Whether this latest news is actually true or not if far from certain, but someone somewhere is desperate for this deal to happen.
Ralph Hasenhuttl certainly isn't and has said on several occasions that Adams is part of his plans and going nowhere, indeed it has shown those Saints fans who take to social media to ell the World that Gao is only interested in selling players just who is in charge of transfers and it seems that at Southampton the man having the final say is the manager himself.
So why do these rumours persist, we ll as I say they start chain reactions and perhaps if Saints were to suddenly find the man they are looking for at the right price it could start movement, but so far there is little evidence of that.
Saints though know that loan deals with options to buy mean nothing and that some clubs use them to their advantage, we thought we had sold Cedric last January with one of those deals, yet Inter Milan had no intention of buying him they just needed a cheap temporary back up to get them out of a fix.
Hasenhuttl seems to be looking towards Adams for next season, Shane Long is out of contract and perhaps will have one last move, then it would be Adams who would replace him, so he could well see more game time as the season progresses if Saints pull right out of any chance of relegation trouble and then the manager can afford to play him more instead of going for the tried and tested.