Victor Wanyama: Midfielder celebrates third goal
SOUTHAMPTON, April 25- Saints are still working on convincing Victor Wanyama to sign a new contract. At the end of this season the Kenyan midfielder will have just a year left on the deal he penned when joining from Celtic for Ksh 1.9Bn in 2013.
There is rumoured to be plenty of interest in him from clubs in England – including Tottenham, managed by the man who brought him to Saints, Mauricio Pochettino – and across Europe, giving him plenty of options.
Should Wanyama choose not to sign a new deal at Saints, it is very likely he will be sold this summer while he still has a market value, rather than allowing him to leave for nothing after one more season.
For now though, Saints are persevering with the talks.
“I didn’t talk to Victor about his contract,” said Saints boss Ronald Koeman. “What I know is that the club, Les Reed, is talking to Victor and talking to his agent about his future in the club and about his contract.
“I don’t know what the state is of that talks.
“We like to keep Victor in the club and that’s why Les Reed is talking to the player and to his agent.”
The Wanyama situation is almost exactly the same as the one Saints found themselves in with Nathaniel Clyne last year.
Clyne was wanted by other sides and held extensive talks with Saints over a prolonged period of time before opting not to put pen to paper.
With just a year left on his deal Saints sold him to Liverpool with his value set to decrease.
Koeman admitted: “It’s always the same problem if you have a player in your team, in your club, who goes in his last year of contract like it was with Clyne. That makes it more difficult because we don’t like to leave players who are out of contract, and that’s not the business what Southampton likes to do.”
However, the Saints boss is trying to remain focused on football for now, and so is not going to be distracted by talking to Wanyama about his situation at this exact moment.
“No, it’s not the moment to talk about contracts because we are not finishing the season,” he insisted.
“There are other important things to do for the manager.”
