Southampton’s executive director Les Reed has ruled out the sale of any key players this summer, including Chelsea target Virgil van Dijk.
Standard Sport reported on Tuesday that the Premier League champions had turned their attention to the Dutch centre-back after Juventus had rebuffed their advances for Leonardo Bonucci, and they may have to look elsewhere again after Reed’s comments.
It had looked like van Dijk was set for a move to Anfield earlier in the month, but a complaint of tapping-up lead to Liverpool apologising to the south-coast club and retracting their interest in the player, who was said to be keen on the move.
When asked about star players possibly leaving Reed told Sky Sports: "None of those players are for sale. I can't make it any plainer than that and that's the way we mean to go forward.
"We built this squad over some time and think we have a strong squad.
"We will fine-tune it but, other than that, we are looking forward to a very competitive season next year and we plan to go forward on that basis."
