Southampton are resigned to selling Virgil van Dijk in January - but are demanding a staggering £70m world record fee.
Manchester City , Liverpool and Chelsea are all in for the Dutch defender who has been axed from the first team set-up while they carry out the transfer auction.
Premier League leaders City are confident of landing van Dijk but Liverpool believe they also have a genuine chance as the 26-year-old wanted to move to Anfield last summer and privately they think that is still the case.
City are ready to pay £60m while Liverpool had a £65m offer turned down last summer before backing off after being forced to publicly apologise for tapping him up.
But Mirror Sport understands that Southampton will hold out for a record fee bigger than the record £50m City paid for Kyle Walker in the summer and the fact three clubs are in for him will only strengthen the belief they can get £70m.
Arsenal were the other club interested in van Dijk last summer but the price this time is likely to scare them off from a player who was blocked from leaving in the summer and Southampton do not believe his attitude has been right in the past few weeks.
Van Dijk was not involved against Huddersfield on Saturday and did not even travel to Wembley for Southampton’s defeat to Tottenham and Mauricio Pellegrino opened the door to a January sale.
Saints boss Pellegrino said: “I have to decide what’s best for the team and around Virgil there has been a lot of speculation.
“The manager decides what is the best. We win, draw and lose, with and without Virgil. We have to wait until January. I can’t control the market so we’ll see what happens.”
Pellegrino insisted he had no regrets about keeping van Dijk in the summer even though the defender wanted to leave and has endured a bad first half of the campaign.
“We tried to do the best for the team. The board decided to try to keep our best player at the club. This situation is a big learning curve for everybody and now we decide what is the best for the club,” said Pellegrino.
Pellegrino also finds himself under mounting pressure at St Mary’s as the unhappy travelling fans chanted “You’re getting sacked in the morning.”
But Pellegrino insisted that he can turn the situation around even though he confessed Southampton now find themselves in a relegation scrap.
Pellegrino said: “The fans have the same feeling we have. People want to see a reaction, the spirit of aggression, fighting for every ball. We did in the second half but need to show from beginning.
“After a difficult moment like today, it’s important to know how people react. You can realise how people really are. Which are the players who want to fight 100 per cent for the club. It will help me draw a lot of conclusions.
“The Premier League is tight with ten teams more or less really close and we are in difficult situation. We need a couple of results to change the mood and show our best personality on the pitch.”