Wanyama wants out of Saints

It's old news that Victor Wanyama will try to 'force' a move from Southampton to a club who can offer Champions League football, he made that clear to them last summer when they refused to let him leave.

Players have their own career path set out, they have a limited tile at the top of the game before they hit 30 and can see the end of their careers in sight. That means on the way up they can't hang around at a club too long. They have to climb through the levels and use clubs as a stepping stone to get to where they want to be.

Fans don't like that, but that's the reality of football and preventing a player from furthering his career isn't always in a clubs best interests, yes they may get one more year out of him, as we did with Modric and Bale, but any longer and you have a player who simply doesn't want to be there and that affects performance.

To perform at their best a player has to totally have bought what the coach wants and be 100% behind him, anything less and however hard a player tries there is always more that he could be giving. Without the motivation though, he can't.

Wanyama wanted to move last summer and came to a gentleman's agreement that the club would listen to offers this summer. Now we all know what clubs think of gentleman's agreements, absolutely nothing. They simply put a price on a player nobody will pay while a player and their agent expects the player to be sold for a reasonable fee.

He has made it clear for the past two seasons that he will not sign a new contract and entering the last year of his contract he value has plummeted. The figures being bandied about are suggesting he is worth £25 million, he isn't. That is a valuation when he has three years left on a contract, he doesn't have that now. In a season he is free, now he is around £12 million, perhaps. Again Southampton fans won't like that but that the reality of players with only a year left on their contracts. Crystal Palace are said to be preparing a £7 million offer for Berahino, another player with one year left on his contract.

Chairman who try to force players to stay and sign new contracts are shooting themselves in the foot and actually doing the fans a disservice. Yes they get an extra years playing time but that is coupled with a reduction in price and a reduction in the capability of replacing the player. A contract is simply a means to get a transfer fee for a player, effectively that is all it is for.

Wanyama is 24-year-old, in June he will be 25, his career has another seven seasons left, nine if he is lucky. That isn't a long time. Since Mauricio Pochettino joined Tottenham after Southampton failed to give him squad and transfer assurances, Wanyama has been linked and been reported as wanting to join Tottenham. Those stories are surfacing yet again and he is expecting that this summer he will get his wish.