Liverpool have been offered encouraging signs in their quest to sign Sadio Mané from Southampton with the Senegal forward hoping to join Jürgen Klopp’s side for around £30m.

Mané, a product of the Metz academy who moved to St Mary’s in 2014 for around £12m, has emerged as a main transfer target for Liverpool despite continued interest in Bayern Munich’s Mario Götze.

It is understood that negotiations between the clubs has been ongoing for several weeks, with Southampton initially stating that they would not accept less than £40m for a player who scored 11 times in the Premier League last season. However that attitude has softened in recent days, particularly because Mané has only two years of his contract remaining and his representatives have made it clear he would like to move to Anfield having been denied the opportunity to join Manchester United last summer and in the January transfer window.

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The 24-year-old has since had a series of disagreements with the hierarchy at Southampton, culminating with him being dropped from the starting XI by manager Ronald Koeman after arriving half an hour late for the match against Liverpool in February.

While Southampton have now indicated they would be willing to sell Mané, a source close to the player has indicated “nothing is imminent” because he is currently on holiday having helped Senegal secure their qualification for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations earlier this month. However, it is anticipated that situation could change in the next few days as negotiations continue.

Mané, who scored eight times in his last eight Premier League games as Southampton ended the season in sixth place, would become the fifth player to swap the south coast for Anfield in the last three seasons following in the footsteps of Dejan Lovren, Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne. A product of the Génération Foot academy in the Senegalese capital Dakar, Mané left home at the age of 12 to pursue his football career and was a key member of the team which reached the quarter-finals of the 2012 Olympic football tournament.