Southampton boss Mauricio Pellegrino has been told he has to sell to buy with 13 days left of the transfer window.
The Times report that the new Chinese owners have no plans to inject any funds into the club, having purchased an 80% stake for £210m via a bank loan.
(How is 80% of Southampton only worth £210m when just one of their players is valued at £70m?!)
The Argentine manager has been alerted of this fact and will now surely have to decide whether it could make sense to offload wantaway Virgil van Dijk and reinvest the money before the end of the transfer window.
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Southampton’s chairman Ralph Krueger indicated that while he ‘never says never,’ their stance hasn’t changed on van Dijk and they don’t expect to sell him this August – to make a point that they cannot simply be bullied out of their best players [Guardian].
In many ways, we admire this stand – and are hoping Liverpool do the same with Coutinho and Barcelona’s advances.
What we would prefer is for a top quality alternative to be signed – though are beginning to realise Jurgen Klopp doesn’t agree.