Southampton have said that when they sell a player in this transfer window, that it will need to be a win-win offer that persuades them to sell their most valuable assets, now Liverpool are hoping that they are about to meet that criteria.

When Saints signed Romeo Lavia last summer, they made a £10 million investment on a player who was yet to make his debut in the Premier League for Manchester City, it was a big gamble and the deal was believed to include £3.5 million in add ons and a 20% sell on clause.

Lavia was undoubtably one of perhaps only 2 or 3 players in the Southampton squad who could hold his head up after what proved to be a disastrous season, this did not go unnoticed by the bigger clubs and there has been speculation about Lavia since almost the day he joined.

Chelsea launched a bid in August last year after they had appointed the man who had been prominent in bringing Lavia to St Mary's, Joe Shields had only joined the club a couple of months earlier from Manchester City and he himself had been poached by Chelsea and clearly had a hand in this late bid despite still being a Southampton employee at that time.

Liverpool seem to have led the way in the pursuit of Lavia and according to footballleagueworld.co.uk it is the Reds who are about to place that "Win -Win" offer that Southampton will accept.

They say that the Anfield club are about to submit an offer of over £40 million and that will also include a sell on clause, so that Saints would profit should Lavia move on.

However it should be noted at this stage that journalist Adam Jones also claims that Lavia's "Impressive" season included 29 Premier league goals, if he had done that, then he would have kept Saints up and perhaps keeping him for another season, his actual total was a single effort.

Liverpool are still facing competition though, Arsenal & Chelsea are said to be hovering and Southampton would probably hope Manchester City come into the equation as that could possibly include a loan back deal.

Liverpool though will hope that they can tempt Saints with their latest offer, £40 million hasn't been enough so far, given the £10 million paid for the player and the 20% sell on clause on any profit, this would leave Southampton making just £24 million profit, although some would say this isn't bad business for a year.

The Merseyside club will hope that the increased cash on the table plus a sell on clause will clinch the deal, but given that Liverpool see Lavia as a rock in their midfield for many years to come and signings do tend to stay long periods at Anfield, that perhaps won't benefit Southampton for a long while.

No Saints supporter is under the illusion that Lavia will stay past the transfer window, they have seen first hand the talent that he is, but they want the club to get a fir price for the player and then hopefully re invested back in the team, ironically Lavia's replacement has already been signed, yet another Manchester City academy player in Shea Charles, but the money is needed to strengthen elsewhere.

Photo: Action Images

Monksway added 09:53 - Aug 1 I'm not sure about strengthening elsewhere. I'd have thought the big fees would be needed to offset the costs of relegation and the losses incurred through the awful transfers in January - £40 million for Onuacho and Sulimana alone.
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highfield49 added 10:06 - Aug 1 Am I correct in thinking that City have a buy back clause of 40 million which activates in 2024? If so, it makes sense to negotiate a deal that is in excess of that figure with one of the interested clubs.
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TimSaint added 10:14 - Aug 1 I see that Liverpool, in their attempt to drive down the price, have had a piece of published on the BBC Sport website today. The 'jounalist' or 'sports writer' is saying that £50m for Lavia is too much, as he has only had 1 year in the Prem. Again, we could have sold him a year ago for £40m, but now with a year's Prem experience, the price is £50m. Don't come back until you can meet our asking price. Oh and you have just sold 2 midfielders to the Saudi league for a combined £53m, so cough up or do one.

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