Newcastle might be one of the richest clubs in the World, but they are not throwing money around this summer, however that should not mean that Clubs like Southampton have to bow down and sell them players cheaply.

Players have a lot of power these days and those football clubs outside of the Big 7 often find that they are held to ransom by their players when they are the subject of a bid from a so called Big club.

Those clubs rely on the transfer targets desperation for the big lights and big bucks to try and force their clubs to sell them cheaper than the market price.

This seems to be happening at the moment with Newcastle United's pursuit of Tino Livramento.

The Irish Independent claim that Newcastle are prepared to walk away from signing Tino Livramento unless Southampton drop their asking price for the ex Chelsea defender.

They go on to say that the player himself is keen on the move, but the two clubs are far apart on their valuations, Saints want £30 million for Livramento, on paper that seems optimistic for the full back who has only started 25 games plus another 5 as sub since joining the club in the summer of 2021.

Those stats would seemingly suggest that the Magpies £15 million maximum bid is realistic, but as we know on the South Coast, the stats don't tell the full story of a player who looked to have the world at his feet in his debut season for Southampton before an injury kept him out for a year.

However Livramento is an exceptional talent and Saints are in no mood to let him go for a pittance.

From this perspective the £30 million price task being asked is a realistic starting figure, Saints will be well aware that Livramento is not going to be a long term resident at St Mary's, that he is going to play for the biggest clubs, but they are not going to let him go at less than the going rate.

They are happy for him to prove that the injury has not affected his ability going forward in the Championship and then see what happens.

From the players perspective, he is being offered a contract at one of the World's richest clubs and that is bound to be attractive, the injury will be playing on his mind and getting a long term contract at a far higher salary than Saints can offer, will give him financial security should he not be the player he was and indeed should become.

Newcastle are said to be restricted by the fact that they do not want to fall into the same situation than Manchester City find themselves in having fallen foul of the Financial fair play rules, this means that their transfer budget for this summer is around £75 million and they are about to blow £60 million of that on Sandro Tonali of AC Milan.

This will leave them having to scrimp and save and even to look at loan deals to keep themselves within the financial fair play regulations.

So for the moment it looks like being stalemate between Southampton & Newcastle over Livramento and although Saints supporters might breathe a sigh of relief, this is not good news, Livramento might well play in the opening Championship fixture, but that does not mean that he will still be at St Mary's in September and that does not help Saints own planning.

One deal that ,might happen a little bit quicker though is Romeo Lavia, Liverpool & Chelsea are said to be on the verge of making their bids for a player who Saints rate at £50 million.

The Liverpool Echo seem to think Jurgen Klopp wants Lavia and that Liverpool are about to make a bid in excess of £40 million.

This is of course below Southampton's own valuation, but it is a starting bid with the Red's keen to get a jump ahead of their rivals for Lavia's signature.

Chelsea are said to also be keen on Lavia, but it is Liverpool who are ahead in the race.

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Block8 added 11:58 - Jul 3 We all know Lavia is going and if we can £45 million then good for us. As far as Tino goes he is on a long contract and we don't need to sell him and Chelsea have a large sell on fee, so hold on for a bit more. The major problem is we can't really rebuild until we know who is going and may well start the season short of a full squad. This cannot lead to the panic buying we saw in the summer and winter windows, so we need to be careful. There are some good players in the B & Youth teams but we must sign a bit of experience to guide them through if we are to bounce back quickly. However all I seem to be reading is that we are looking to sign half the Swansea team?

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underweststand added 14:05 - Jul 3 The club that has the guts to pay the required fee will still be getting a very good deal, and those who have backed out ....may regret it for a long period into the future.
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