I just don't see how a transfer request and him openly wanting to join us would make Southampton do business with us and sell him after the fiasco that happened.
We all should move on, this will never happen!!!!
Think that the hope is by him doing a transfer request will basically show he's not committed to being at Saints, could potentially become a disruption to the rest of he team etc so will result in him being sold. Basically using the power that so many players seem to have over club now.
Personally, I'd like us to sign him, I rate him up there with Alderweireld as being the best in the league and he's still got plenty of time to develop and improve his game further.
However, from a neutral point of view, it's good to see that for a change a team isn't just rolling over and being dictated to where a player is concerned because too many players have far too much to say over their futures now and can seem to dictate if and when they are sold.
Ultimately, Saints aren't budging on this, VVD can hand a transfer request in but to be honest he's made the situation difficult for him and us, he chose to sign a 6 year contract half way through the season when he was playing well and interest was creeping in about him from other teams so with 5years+ on his contract, they don't have to sell, they aren't in financial difficulty so if he kicks up a fuss they can happily banish him from the first team for the next few seasons.
Maybe due to the amount of business we have done with them over the last few years we took it upon ourselves to assume we could go straight on and contact the player and sort a fee out later on.
Either way, they've made complete fools of us.
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