We need to get a full season out of him and sell him in the summer if he wants to go. VVD being out for Wembley final cost us dearly. We would have won that trophy had he played that's how good he is.

A January transfer is ridiculous, nothing will have been gained, it will have made a nonsense of hanging onto him this summer. We need at least two more years from VVD

Well, we stood our ground and I guess slowly players and agents are learning that Saints are not the pushover we were, nevertheless it seemed like a lot of arse-ache just for him to go in January.

We were not the only ones BaselSaint remember, Liverpool (Coutinho), Arsenal (Sanchez), Chelsea (Hazard) and Spurs (Deli Ali) all stood their ground. We may have won the first skirmish but the war has only just begun.

If he's off in January then there is absolutely no point at all in bringing him back into first team action.

As said above ... He will not be going in January!! If Lazy journalism is already happening on this site, just days after we said he was Definitley 'Not for Sale' and has a 5 year contract ... Then God help us!! The Liverpundits and the press are going to be a nightmare.
Please, please listen to what you are told by the club.... And Write articles on that evidence.
The club has not said he is available in January ... FACT .. Nothing else can be said. Stop it!!

'shown great ambition'.. so come September 2018 VVD will be wearing a saints shirt? I'd love to see it and hate to say it but we are not an ambitious club.. not since markus/cortese anyway

Apparently not one single club made any approach for him, after all that fuss he created his ego must be very bruised. It would be like dumping your misses to get a better one to find she's the only one who wanted you, and now your left alone and having to crawl back on her terms, as your not as handsome as you thought you were.

Almost feel sorry for him

Luffy because Southampton reported Liverpool early. They asked him to kick off in hope saints would put him on the market, then Liverpool would have made an offer. As for other clubs, it's just the way modern transfers are conducted. Eg the reps of arsenal will contact vvd reps and enquire, the word allllll summer was no sale. Respectful clubs respect that. Liverpool on the other hand.. We all know what they attempt to do and are also the first ones to kick off when other clubs play the same game for their players lol

Better to start him at an away game as it will keep him away from any st marys morons who think booing him helps.

Saintsfc post above hits the nail on the head.

I know this will grate Liverpool fans, but the tactics they employ are so because, whilst they are a big club, they are by no means the biggest club – both in EPL and abroad. What I mean by that is that there are other clubs (notably the likes of Man City, Utd and Chelsea and then Barca, PSG and Real Madrid) that offer greater firepower in terms of transfer budget, salary spend, and (let’s face it) opportunity to win silverware. As a result, Liverpool (just like Saints) have to adapt to help them compete bearing in mind their current status. I’m not comparing Saints with Liverpool (because we are not as big as Liverpool by any means) but rather looking at what strategies the clubs take to compete in a dog-eat-dog environment.

That is why Liverpool have been more ‘aggressive’ in pursuing targets and is perhaps best illustrated in their attempts to get VVD and say Chelsea or Man City’s attempts to secure Bertrand or Cedric.

Liverpool (via FSG) do not operate like Man City for example, because they don’t have the same licence to spend mega bucks willy nilly. In addition, due to a number of years of playing second fiddle to the top teams, it makes it harder for them to attract the truly ‘elite’ talent. As a result, Liverpool look at ‘lesser’ clubs like Southampton – as they offer the 2nd tier potential (i.e. those players who have done well in the EPL but reside in a team in the lower strata). Here they can compete better than they can compete to – say – prise away a top/elite player from a club on a similar (or better) stature than Liverpool. In addition, it means they do better to avoid trying to compete with the likes of City/Utd in getting players – knowing it is more than likely they will not go to Liverpool in the face of that interest from a ‘bigger’ club.

Southampton offered (I use the past tense purposefully) Liverpool the ideal market opportunity: SFC have expertise in identifying and developing talent that quickly becomes top-class potential, who are often (but not always) seen by the bigger clubs as maybe 2nd or 3rd choice transfer options. This allows Liverpool to invest at a lower financial level but get the kind of player they need to compete with the big boys and their elite players. It has worked to a degree: whilst Mane is their biggest coup, Lallana and (to a lesser extent) Clyne have added value. Yet Lovern and Lambert have not done so well. Yet this has not deterred Liverpool from continuously browsing through the SFC catalogue.

The bigger clubs don’t operate in this way: they have so much money and clout that they identify elite talent alongside picking up the occasional ‘gem’ that they think may do well but isn’t at the elite bracket yet. On the ‘occasional gem’ side, they make enquiries and (often enough) will get what they want by paying huge sums. If they don’t they quickly move on to the next target – because they have enough money and talent. This isn’t the case with Liverpool – they can’t get the elite so easily and they have to rely on carefully identifying the ‘gem’ bracket to support them.

And so along comes VVD. Liverpool clearly see him as huge player that fits the bill. Yet, in this case, it is clear that so have the bigger clubs (Man City and Chelsea) and probably see him as the ‘gem’ as he is not proven at elite level (yet). Liverpool are worried – knowing that City and Chelsea will easily outpower them in any bid. So they sneak around meeting with the player. Whilst it is obvious all clubs meet with Players’ reps before making a bid (it happens) Liverpool did a lot more – because they needed to. They needed to get VVD to get his head and ar*e into Liverpool so that the bigger clubs would shrug their shoulders and move onto their next choices.

Hence the public proclamations from Liverpool earlier in the summer. They were brash – but it was part of a strategy rather than pure foolishness. They wanted to avoid a bidding war.

Trouble is, SFC have had enough of being Liverpool’s catalogue. This is clear from the rush of long-term contracts (although this wouldn’t be just aimed at Liverpool but at all clubs). I think Liverpool just forgot (or chose to ignore) that SFC may actually want to keep their star player. We then know what happened. As predicted, City and Chelsea moved on (probably because they enquired and SFC said no – leading them to move on because they know they can buy just as good somewhere else).

Compare the VVD affair to Chelsea’s enquiries for Bertrand/Soares. They enquiried, SFC said no. They moved on. No silly b*ggers. They could have clearly used their weight to push the issue but that’s not in their strategy. These guys can easily move on to find alternatives (and probably pay more). Liverpool can’t do that – so they resign themselves to trying to force VVD into moving. They haven’t identified a VVD alternative: not because there isn’t any, but because there isn’t any that they can afford and whom will be attracted to Liverpool (because they are likely attracted or already playing for one of the bigger clubs).

It will be interesting to see what Liverpool do now. Their transfer dealings indicate they are still doing well in identifying 2nd tier talent (albeit without elite or EPL experience). But now SFC have shut up shop, where will they get their EPL proven bargains from?