Paul Merson has said that he is so desperate to sign former Irish International defender Steve Staunton, that he is prepared to sacrifice a couple of other players to get him.

The rumours has been that Merson had already made one attempt to sign the former Liverpool and Aston Villa man as player-coach, but that negotations had broken down due to Staunton’s wage demands. This has now been confirmed by Merson himself:

“It’s a difficult situation. I spoke to Steve at the weekend and he is still very interested in coming. We are talking about a top, top international player here with experience and a presence in the dressing room. I would love to get him.
He knows what kind of money I have to offer here and that is not a problem.
But there are other clubs interested in ‘Stan’ and the fact is that, in order to finance his deal, we would have to lose players.”

This piece of news has come as a surprise to Saddlers’ fans, as, with the team already having four centre halves and two left backs (albeit inexperienced), there did not seem to be any room for Staunton in the squad. Despite having expressed an interest in going into management, the player also has not yet got any coaching qualifications.

Now Merson has said that he is prepared to let players go in order to finance a deal for Staunton, which comes as a disappointment to many fans, as they see the squad needing to be strengthened up front and on the left wing, especially with the none appearance of Andrew Surman. He has been included in Southampton’s first team squad for their pre season tour of Scotland, and scored the opener in their 2 - 1 win last night, so he would seem to form part of Harry Redknapp’s plans for the coming season.

Following Julian Joachim deciding to go to Boston earlier this week, the Summer has suddenly turned a little sour.