Tyler Dibling was taken out of the Saints first team squad training with manager Will Still saying that his head was not in the right space due to the transfer rumours surrounding him, but a return is in the hands of the player.

There has been a lot of transfer speculation concerning Tyler Dibling, most of it instigated by his agents who have always seemed keen to move him to what they see as a bigger club, on the face of it putting their chances of earning bigger fee's ahead of the players development.

But the reality is that so far the only club to show any real interest has been Everton who are reported as having had several bids rejected.

Their recent signing of Jack Grealish on loan from Manchester City has cast doubts on whether Everton are still interested in Dibling.

Grealish's arrival will make it even more difficult for Dibling to get a place in the starting line up, an Everton supporter recently gave the opinion that if Dibling did plot up at Goodison, he would be 5th in line for the 2 wide attacking roles, behind Grealish, ex Saint Carlos Alacaraz, Iliman Ndiaye & Dwight McNeil.

The move would be attractive to his agents, but perhaps not now to Dibling who has always put his own personal development ahead of playing for a big club, at least up till now.

Ironically he would probably do well to take a look at Jack Grealish's career and how the man who now stands in his way to a place in the Everton first team stayed loyal to Aston Villa at a similar age to Dibling when they were relegated from the Premier League in 2016 and stayed for the 3 seasons that Villa spent in the Championship.

So if Everton cool their interest then Dibling has some decisions to make with seemingly no one else interested at the moment.

Now according to The Daily Echo Saints manager Will Still has revealed that the ball is now in Dibling's court as to whether he rejoins the squad, insisting that Dibling will be part of his plans if he remains at the club beyond the September 1 deadline and is open to welcoming him back sooner.

"I think as long as he's at the football club, he'll be involved. I think we've shown it with Matty Fernandes," Still explained about the starlet.

"But we just need to make sure that he's getting the right headspace and committed to what we're doing.

"If that's the case, over the next couple of days, if he wants to be a part of it and he wants to be involved, then he will be. But ultimately, it's pretty much down to him."

Dibling of course is young and his head is being turned by Everton's overtures, but that is no excuse, he could look at current Saints team mate Matteus Fernandes, the Portugese midfielder is only 19 months older than Dibling, and he too is being courted by a club wanting to pay big money for his signature in West Ham United.

But his attitude is light years ahead of Dibling, he has not trained apart because his head is being turned, he has featured in both of Saints two games so far and put in a shift, running his socks off and not shirking a tackle, if he can do it then so should Dibling or indeed any of our other players looking to move, but not in the squad such as Joe Aribo & Sam Edozie.

They are professionals, they signed contracts to play for Southampton FC and as long as they are at the club, the average Saints supporter in the stands if offered a job elsewhere, could not tell their current employers that they won't be in for the next week or so whilst they consider the offer or try to get their potential new employer to up the offer, so why should a so called professional footballer.

All Photos Via Reuters

mumps added 10:28 - Aug 14 I think that Dibling and Fernandes will be sold as well as the 3 others out in the cold - Aribo, Smallbone and Edozie, however this will leave us with only 5 traditional midfielders. These sales should net us about £120m, so you would hope SR would invest some of this back in the squad in the form of Krasnodar, Rudoni and Fellows if the rumours are true. However given that there is just over 2 weeks of the transfer window left you would think this squad overhaul is far too late, plus SR tend to lowball for potential transfer targets, we lose out on our first choices then panic buy on the final day. I think the start of the season could be very difficult for Will Still, but if we could clear out our bloated and average midfield with some decent quality, then it could be a great season for the Saints.

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mumps added 10:32 - Aug 14 Correction Spertsyan from Krasnodar
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AJDubYa added 12:12 - Aug 14 Great points Mumps. Reckon if we can get those player exchanges done, we'd defo be better off, especially attacking flair wise!
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Reeder68 added 12:16 - Aug 14 No point plotting up at Goodison as the Everton fan suggests 🤪
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highfield49 added 12:46 - Aug 14 I very much doubt that Dibling is mature enough to make balanced decisions concerning his future in the game, which probably leaves influencers, such as managers, colleagues, agents and parents, having to step up. Some young people quickly adapt to the minefield of adult life and others will struggle to make rational choices throughout their lives. I suspect that most of us just have our ups and downs, without too many errors of judgement, often acting on instinct. Tyler is at a crossroads and hopefully he has at least one trusted advisor who will focus his attention, and I'm hoping that person is Will Still. It appears, basically, he's been told to keep fit, decide where he genuinely wants to be, clear his head and be in a happy place. Then, when you're ready to play, commit to the decision you've taken. Just maybe, after he's reflected on his experience at Chelsea, we'll see him back in our squad next month. If not I wish him well but try not to jump from the frying pan into the fire.

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landsdownsaint added 14:08 - Aug 14 He needs a least another season with us playing regular football. It appears only Everton are interested because the jury’s still out on him , for me he doesn’t oooze quality
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Bowlercow added 15:40 - Aug 14 I've had enough of pundits,journalists,and bloggers writing their opinions as fact.The only people who KNOW for sure what's happening with Tyler and Matty are their familys and agents Everton transfer team,and Saints transfer team They,rightly, keep silent. Read Football Insider and Claret and Hugh for the most hilarious claims Roll on September
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BigbadBarry8myboat added 17:31 - Aug 14 Mumps. £120m ?? No chance. Noone is paying £50m for either of them but Wet Spam and Everton have said that. Aribo is probably worth £10m tops, Edozie £6m and Small bone £6m. So you're talking £100m tops even if we do sell them all. Personally I'd like to see Stephens go, and BBD go. We need a better no.1 and more creativity up top.
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SaintPaulVW added 17:32 - Aug 14 Can I be the first to say that he should literally roll his socks up and get on with playing for Saints.
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Jesus_02 added 20:41 - Aug 14 We need to be balance and we need to play to what strenght we have. The club is being disrespected mercilessly by Premier League Clubs and the media. Yes we need to thin the squad to reduce wages, but is this really the sum of our ambition to sell all our PL quality players , buy Championship ones, get promoted play as a Championship team in the PL get under 20 points then recycle. iTs not sustainable our bloated squad of PL failures is testmient to that. Personaly i'd take the 40 million proft on dibbling and wait till January defore doing anything else. We will either be close to promotion and able to attract better players or cut adrift but in a better possition to move matty o to a team thats pushing for Europe

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