Mane is a good footballer, there is no question about it, but is he the all conquering superstar that he has been made out to be?

The 23-year-old looks set to join Liverpool in a major £34 million deal.

The South Coast club have a history of recovering from the loss of top stars with the likes of Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Morgan Schneiderlin all having moved on without causing too much trouble to the club.

The main issues around those players leaving were that they were crucial members of the first team and seemed irreplaceable, but can the same be said for Saido Mane?

Here are the Transfer Tavern's top THREE reasons why the departure of Sadio Mane from Southampton would be far from a tragedy for the Saints and their fans.....

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PRESS THE IMAGE BELOW TO SEE THE THREE REASONS!

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Consistency

Sadio Mane is quite possibly the most frustrating footballer to watch in the Premier League at the moment, in one week he will bag the quickest hat-trick in Premier League history whilst the next week he can spend the entire match spinning around on the edge of the area before falling over his own feet.

This is a trait that has not gone un-noticed by his superiors, after Saints memorable 4-2 win over Man City towards the end of the season manager, Ronald Koeman, called out Mane for his lack of consistency and told the Senegalese forward that he needed to improve.

His attitude

Another element of Mane's game that Koeman has had to reign the winger in over on a number of occasions over the last couple of seasons.

In Koeman's first season at the club Saints were awarded a penalty, which the manager had told his side James Ward-Prowse was to take. Mane didn't find this quite to his liking and decided that he would take it and went about arguing his side of the case over the penalty spot.

This prompted Koeman to explode on the touchline and criticise his attitude in his post-match interviews.

The money

£34 million is the price tag that Saints will get for Mane.

It is far from likely that should Mane leave that it will be for that much but it will not be for peanuts, somewhere in the region of £25m-£35m which, going by Saints' proven track record of reinvestment and successful scouting, could well lead to the club progressing further.

So Saints fans, what do you think? How much damage would Mane leaving really cause?