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With Rickie Lambert's deal settled and talk of a Dejan Lovren move cooled (but not necessarily dead), attentions turn to Liverpool's Adam Lallana bid and what Southampton are going to do with it. Last night we learned that Liverpool offered £25m for the versatile midfielder, raising £5m from their earlier rejected offer of £20m. The complexities of the deal--namely 25% of of the fee going to Bournemouth, Southampton not having a manger, etc.--have contributed to this dragging out longer than we might have expected.
And for Southampton, that apparently just means that it's going according to plan:
Stalemate in Lallana's proposed move to #LFC. Player wants future sorted before WC. #SaintsFC want to wait.
— Ben Smith (@BenSmithBBC) May 31, 2014
It seems that Liverpool's offer yesterday afternoon/evening was the final bid; that's conjecture, of course, but having started at 20m and returned with a 25m "take it or leave it" offer on Friday, it looks clear that they're content to pay their valuation of the player and nothing more. It has shades of deals from recent transfer windows, only this time it's Liverpool taking a club to the high end of the valuation rather than refusing to budge from a lower--but possibly fair--fee for a player of interest.
Fine margins for the clubs involved, and from a distance it's easy to be critical of how the business is handled on both ends. Hopefully there's some sort of resolution coming soon, though, regardless of what it might be. No secret that we're fans of the deal, even at the current offer, and think he could fit into Liverpool's system to great effect. But if it doesn't work out, there's still a small window in which the club can operate to find someone else.
Just three months or so.
