Reds must increase £20m bid for Lallana to convince Saints to sell
Southampton holding out for more money as Lallana’s first club Bournemouth are entitled to 25% of any fee
Reds target Adam Lallana
Liverpool will have to increase their
£20million offer for Adam Lallana in order to convince Southampton to part with their captain.
Lallana’s first club Bournemouth are entitled to 25% of any fee and the Saints would be expecting to pocket around £20million themselves before having to hand over the Cherries’ chunk.
Although the Saints are loathe to part with any of their star players both Lallana and England World Cup team-mate Luke Shaw, who has been the subject of a big money approach from Manchester United, are expected to depart St Mary’s this summer.
Boyhood Evertonian Lallana, who came to Southampton’s Academy from Bournemouth’s Centre of Excellence as a 12-year-old, feels that he has gone as far as he can with the south coast club.
In pictures: Adam Lallana's career so far
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Having helped the Saints progress up the divisions from League One to establishing themselves back in the Premier League, Lallana, who is in line to start England’s World Cup opener against Italy and has just turned 26, feels the time is right for him to join a bigger club to develop his career.
Although the player has made his mind up that his future lies away from Southampton and would be keen to discuss a potential switch to Anfield, he would be reluctant to hand in a formal transfer request to force through a move given his long association with the Saints.
While Liverpool are eager to do a deal before the World Cup starts, Southampton want to hold on to their England internationals until after the finals in Brazil in the hope that their market values may increase.
Saints are also hoping to convince Argentinian coach Mauricio Pochettino – a reported target for Tottenham – to stay with them as they feel this would increase the chances of their big names remaining.
With Southampton holding out for more cash, Liverpool have been monitoring other targets including Xherdan Shaqiri of Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen’s Emre Can but have not made any formal approaches.