Saints legend Matthew Le Tissier has urged want away centre back Dejan Lovren to apologise to the club and fans over his conduct, if he wants to stay at St Mary’s next season.

The Croatian has attempted to engineer a reported £20 million move to Liverpool by handing in a transfer request and then admitting “my head is already at Liverpool”.

Despite setting his heart on joining Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert at Anfield, he has linked up with Ronald Koeman’s team in Belgium for their pre season tour – suggesting he could have a future on the South Coast.

Club icon Le Tiss, who scored 209 goals in more than 500 appearances at Saints, hit back at the 25-year-old defender, who moved from French side Lyon in £8.5 million deal last summer, by tweeting that he should “keep his trap shut”.

Now, Le Tissier has issued words of advice to the Croatia defender, who had an impressive first season at Saints – including scoring the winning goal against Brendan Rodgers’s side on Merseyside back in September.

The club icon also admitted that he would like Saints to keep Lovren if the player’s attitude changes.

“If he wants to stay then he should apologise to the fans and the club,” he said. “Then I see no reason why he couldn’t stay.

“I made my feelings known through my Twitter account as to how players should behave if they want to get away from a football club.

“I don’t think he went about it in the right way.

“An apology would help first to make sure he gets a decent reception when he steps out on to the pitch.

“He didn’t show a great deal of respect to the football club or for the fans of this football club, so if he is going to stay then it’s in his best interest to apologise first.

Le Tiss added: “Lovren’s a very good footballer at the end of the day. It would be good for us to keep hold of him as long as his head’s in the right place.”