According to reports from The Daily Mail yesterday evening, midfield enforcer Victor Wanyama is expected to reject a five-year contract offer at Southampton.
The Kenyan international arrived at St. Mary’s from Celtic in summer 2013 for a then-club record fee of £12.5million and has since emerged as an integral component of the Saints’ starting Xi, amassing 57 appearances in the Premier League.
Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were both linked with the 6 foot 2 defensive midfielder during the summer transfer window; the Lilywhites allegedly launching two bids including an £18million-plus-Erik-Lamela-on-loan offer on deadline day.
Manager Ronald Koeman publicly insisted in August that the 24 year-old wouldn’t be sold, prompting Wanyama to inform the club that he wanted to leave on two separate occasions during the final week of the transfer window – which saw him dropped for a 3-0 Premier League win over Norwich City last Sunday.
Since the close of the transfer window, Saints executive director Les Reed has revealed the club are in talks with the former SPL star over a new long-term contract, telling reporters; “We’ve already tried to start negotiations on that. We’ve offered him the opportunity for a long-term extension. We’d like to tie him down for another five years. Whether that’s possible or not, I don’t know but the opportunity is there to do that.”
The Daily Mail, however, claim Wanyama has shown ‘no interest’ in signing a new deal and is likely to reject the club’s latest offer. With his current terms set to expire in 2017, it suggests the St. Mary’s outfit will be forced to sell next summer.
What a disgraceful and opportunist piece of journalism. With no respect for the player or Southampton Football Club. Wanyama is currently away with the Kenyan team and clearly has a good deal of time to make a considered decision about his future. A 5 yr contract is not so easily rejected, adding safe millions to his bank account?
So I am certain this story is fabricated and just adds to the immoral pressure put on all concerned. So it turns out Spurs did not even put in a bid for the Player. Despite the papers making up different versions of a story by the hour.
Let Wanyama return to his contracted club and prove himself as a footballer first. He and the club can then decide his future in the right manner.
As it should always be, without the media’s clinical interference!
Adding to the above, quite how did anyone who deals with professional clubs expect Saints to take Lamela on loan. Apart from sign either Caulker or Stekelenberg on a permanent contract or let one of them go it would be impossible to take Lamela on loan as Premier clubs are restricted to two domestic loans.
Like West Brom there was a blatant attempt to unsettle the player without offering a proper fee. According to Matt LeTissier who is on the inside at St Mary’s there was an offer some weeks ago that was less than the fee paid to Celtic by Saints when they bought Wanyama two years ago. No doubt if Spurs recent dealings are anything to go by it was a bit down and the rest over a long period restricted by unachievable add ons. Spurs can take a hike. I suspect Southampton weren’t taken in even if Wanyama and his agent were. I think that they are used to dealing with proper football clubs not market traders.
“And the award for Pi** poor article goes to Christy Malyan.”