Southampton are bringing the Tyler Dibling affair to a no-sale end, but this call can set them up for a blockbuster payday as time passes.
The moment Adam Armstrong erased Brighton's meagre upper hand, their fans will have felt that the game was theirs had their star forwards joined the party. Well, that turned up to be a boost for Southampton but since then, the Saints have felt like conceding advantage to Wrexham on the strikers end.
Cameron Archer needs to recall whatever Will Still told him about scoring, and the Welsh outfit has gained a playoff-finalist in Kieffer Moore. Plus, Wrexham know who Dibling is and will hope they get a goalless stalemate from his side.
Well, Southampton have nearly ensured a stalemate but in their favour, with the wide midfielder seems poised to stay.
Delving on this matter, The Athletic's journalist David Ornstein said: "So Southampton have responded with a counter-offer of £45m plus £5m in easily achievable bonuses and a 25 per cent sell-on clause. That is beyond what Everton are willing to pay for the 19-year-old Englishman, but there is no plan for that asking price to be reduced."
Saints might have thought about Tottenham before denying Everton
For a team in decline, it takes a lot of courage to rebuff these numbers but Southampton have never bought Dibling. And therefore, they know any pay packet for him can be even more if they play their cards right.
As an early thought, Everton's failure can be Tottenham Hotspurs jackpot as the past few weeks have only trimmed down their squad's creative-ness. Morgan Gibbs-White isn't a firm candidate to move to London this year, and the Lilywhites can take months to fine-tune their attacking combination without the starter duo of Heung-Min Son and a fatigued James Maddison.
Should Dibling collect multiple Man of the Match honours in the coming season, his path to Tottenham could start picking up pace again.