Liverpool closing in on signing of Sadio Mané from Southampton for £30m

Mané, a product of the Metz academy who moved to St Mary’s in 2014 for around £12m, has emerged as a main transfer target for Liverpool despite continued interest in Bayern Munich’s Mario Götze.

It is understood that negotiations between the clubs has been ongoing for several weeks, with Southampton initially stating that they would not accept less than £40m for a player who scored 11 times in the Premier League last season. However that attitude has softened in recent days, particularly because Mané has only two years of his contract remaining and his representatives have made it clear he would like to move to Anfield having been denied the opportunity to join Manchester United last summer and in the January transfer window.

The 24-year-old has since had a series of disagreements with the hierarchy at Southampton, culminating with him being dropped from the starting XI by manager Ronald Koeman after arriving half an hour late for the match against Liverpool in February.

Read more at The Guardian

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