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Liverpool's two Southampton targets in the transfer market have been worlds apart in terms in accessibility--few even knew that Rickie Lambert was a potential signing at this time last week, and today he's 48 hours past leaning on things at Melwood, having given one of the most heartfelt and endearing introduction interviews in memory. Adam Lallana, on the other hand, has been chased publicly since the Premier League season ended. And it's proven a complex deal to try to work out with a club that doesn't yet have a manager and will owe 25% of the player's fee to Bournemouth's their team of clairvoyant legal geniuses.
Today might represent some sort of forward progress on the heels of news that the relationship between club and player has become strained, however, as it now looks as though Adam Lallana has informed Southampton's upper management that he would like to leave the club, though as yet he hasn't submitted an official transfer request. The BBC's Ben Smith and Adam Blackmore had the following information to share:
Adam Lallana has told #SaintsFC he wants to leave. No formal transfer request, yet. More @BBCSport pic.twitter.com/c9Dijoae2R
— Ben Smith (@BenSmithBBC) June 2, 2014
#saintsfc Lallana hoping #saintsfc appoint a new manager in the next week so he can move on - Ronald Koeman is high on the short-list
— Adam Blackmore (@bigadamsport) June 2, 2014
Whether or not this accelerates his increasingly convoluted sale remains to be seen, but it's about as far as Lallana can go without handing in a written transfer request. While it may be understandable why he would want to avoid doing that given his history with the club, it's now up to Southampton to decide if their long-serving captain's informal--if public--plea to be allowed to leave once his international duties for England are over at the World Cup will be enough to sway them.
