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Over the weekend, reports in the Croatian press, corroborated by journalists with ties to Liverpool, suggested a deal to bring Dejan Lovren to Anfield for £20M was all but done. In fact, many expected the player to be on his way to Boston by now to undergo a medical as Loic Remy and Divock Origi are currently rumoured to be doing.
Turns out, though, nobody bothered to tell Southampton and new manager Ronald Koeman the whole thing had been sorted out. Today, the Saints boss was asked about his supposedly departing defender. His response suggests any deal is still quite a ways from being done, and that it would be a shock if Lovren made the switch this week.
"If they are interested they have to come with a bid," said Koeman. "And a good one. Then we can speak about it, because the player does want to move. Players have to be happy at Southampton. They have to fight for the colours of Southampton and, if not, okay. But only if there is a good bid on the table."
Not only is there not a bid that Koeman and Southampton consider "good" on the table, but the manager claims there has been no contact whatsoever with Liverpool over the past week: "In the last week there is no contact, and that's strange because there is a lot of rumours about that."
There certainly have been a lot of rumours—with most of them suggesting the deal was essential done. Now, though, it appears as though those rumours may have rather been getting rather ahead of where the transfer saga actually stands.
