Liverpool was never mentioned but it was quite clear that Slaven Bilic had Merseyside on is mind as he spoke to the media about Manu Lanzini.

The Neymar/Coutinho development and speculation that it could affect our Argentinian has been in the papers for weeks.

But David Sullivan has already told ClaretandHugh that a Liverpool bid would be rejected because our playmaker quite simply is “not for sale.”

And today Slaven was making the Lanzini position even clearer saying: “I spoke with him last season a few times, at the end of the season, and at the beginning of the pre-season and he knows we are looking after him.

“He is one of our key players, definitely. He has a big year ahead of him and we know his situation and we’re going to do everything possible to sort him out.

He has got a long contract with us but, let’s be honest, the chairman always used to appreciate those sorts of situations and I know he activated his clause even before he had to.

He already showed him how much we respect him and he deserves from us to do it again. No doubt he is our key player and we’re going to well look after him.

When I said he is a great lad, he never showed me – and we speak on a daily basis – any sort of things that he is unhappy.

Of course every player knows his situation and wants to use his situation in a good way for himself, but I know for sure that he is happy here and he likes it.”