Friday, 11th July, 2014
New Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has hit out at defender Dejan Lovren for claiming his "head is in Liverpool".
Lovren is keen to leave Southampton to join Liverpool, with the Reds already having seen at least one bid knocked back by the south coast club.
The Croatia international has been pushing to exit and went public with his desire last week, in the process accusing the Saints of showing no ambition by selling Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw.
Lovren said: "Look, I'd gladly stay in Southampton if the club had any ambitions, if they kept the key players."
For Koeman, who wants to keep hold of the former Lyon centre-back, what Lovren did was wrong.
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"I spoke to Dejan twice and he was very clear about his situation", Koeman was quoted as saying by ITV.
"I am the new manager. I want to keep all the good players – I want to keep Dejan in the team because he is an important player in the team.
"We have to do what the best is for the club. He has a contract, he has to come back this Sunday but I don't know what will happen after this.
"It's football and there is a lot of movement but first of all we like to keep all that information in the club and not in the press. That was not a good thing of his side.
"I wasn't happy with his comments in the press.That is not good for the club, for the rest of the players or for himself and we will speak about whether to fine him or not."
Lovren turned out for Croatia at this summer's World Cup, but was unable to help the country progress past the group stage.
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