Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl says there is "no reason to sell” Danny Ings, despite the England forward having just a year remaining on his contract.
The Austrian tactician has reaffirmed his intention of keeping the 28-year-old at St Mary's in light of interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.
Liverpool will be monitoring the situation after including a 20 per cent sell-on clause in the deal with Southampton when selling Ings two years ago.
But Hasenhuttl told BBC Radio Solent : "He has one more year left in our club, we need this player, we want him to play for us. But it’s never helpful to go into a season with only one year left & I think he should also know.
“Messages like: ‘He doesn’t want to sign a contract’ - they do not help anybody, doesn’t help him or us.
"I don’t know who said these messages, to be honest, it’s not coming from our side, definitely not.
“We invested a lot to bring him here, went with him through all of his injuries, gave him time to recover and he helped us massively with his goals."
He said: "There’s still one year to go and there is no reason to sell.”
Ings' rich vein of goalscoring form saw him push back into the plans of Gareth Southgate and the England set-up thanks to his 22 goals in 38 games but an injury hampered his progress with the national side.
He did return firing, however, including a cheeky dink over Alisson Becker in the Saints' 1-0 win over the Reds in January.
The Premier League champions were said to be eyeing Ings as a potential replacement for Sergio Aguero who swapped the Etihad Stadium for the Camp Nou after his contract expired.
Whereas one of the first tasks for Tottenham new manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, is to tie down want-away star talisman Harry Kane who is eyeing a move away from North London after 12 trophyless years with Spurs.
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