Southampton's Morgan Schneiderlin will not be
leaving the club, insists manager Ronald Koeman,
despite the midfielder handing in a transfer request.
The 20-year-old Frenchman has been linked with a
move to join up with former Saints boss Mauricio
Pochettino at Tottenham, with Spurs reported to be
ready to pay £20million.
Pochettino is reportedly keen for Schneiderlin and
Southampton striker Jay Rodriguez to join him at
White Hart Lane but executive director Les Reed and
chairman Ralph Krueger are adamant that there will
be no further departures from the club, prompting
Schneiderlin to demand a move.
The 24-year-old France international posted a tweet
on Tuesday that suggested he was unhappy to be told
his future lay at St Mary's, and he has followed that
up with an official transfer request despite reports he
has no release clause and three years left to run on
his contract.
He missed Thursday night's 3-1 friendly win at local
rivals Brighton and afterwards Koeman expressed his
desire not to let another one of his players head for
the exit.
When asked about Schneiderlin's request to leave,
Koeman told Sky Sports News: "It's the decison of the boardbut I don't talk about it. He's a player at
Southampton and he will continue as a player at
Southampton.
"But I don’t like to talk about that situation. I spoke to
Morgan two days ago and he is still not in the shape
to play a friendly at this level. He needs more training
sessions. If he's ready he will play.
"Normally he will play next week against
Bayer Leverkusen [Southampton's final pre-season friendly]."
Saints lost manager Mauricio Pochettino to
Tottenham at the start of the summer and several
big-money sales have followed - Luke Shaw joining
Manchester United, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert
joining Liverpool and Calum Chambers joining Arsenal.
Reports this week are suggesting Celtic
goalkeeper Fraser Forster is high on Koeman's
wanted list.
Koeman added: "There is no news on that and still no
news on other players. We are close to signing two
or three players and we hope to do that by this
weekend.
"I won't talk about any of the players but we are
looking to bring in players into this squad at the level
that we need to have a good season."
On Thursday's reports that Manchester United striker
Javier Hernandez was on Southampton's radar,
Koeman said: "We like to have all the good players!"
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