Koeman Claims Lovren Will Stay if Liverpool Don't Meet His Valuation

New Southampton boss Ronald Koeman has claimed they have not received a new bid from Liverpool for Dejan Lovren and insists that the centre-back will finally stay at the Saints should the Reds not meet his valuation.

Brendan Rodger's side had an opening offer of £20m rejected earlier this month as the South-Coast club are said to be demanding around £25m to part ways with the defender.

The Croatian expressed his frustation about the Southampton decision, declaring his "head is already at Liverpool" even though Tottenham were also interested in securing his services.

It was expected the Reds will launch a fresh bid to complete his signing in the coming days, but questioned if there had been a new bid from Liverpool, Koeman said: "We have had no bid from Liverpool for Lovren, that is the situation.

"If that does not change, he will continue to play at Southampton. We know there is a lot of interest in our players, I think that is normal. But we have to wait, we work on the team," he said to Sky Sports.

Koeman is said to have earmarked Aston Villa defender Ron Vlaar as Lovren's replacement but questioned about that he said. "I know him [Vlaar] from when he was playing at Feyenoord. It depends on the [Lovren] situation but we will decide who we bring in. There are a lot of rumours in football and I can do nothing about that."

Following the departure of former manager Mauricio Pochettino, Southampton have already cashed in on Rickie Lambert, Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana, while according to the reports Lovren himself, Jay Rodriguez and Morgan Schneiderlin will also leave the team this summer.