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Morgan Schneiderlin says he was "treated like cattle" by Southampton

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Julian Finney

The Morgan Schneiderlin transfer saga was a bit of a debacle for all involved, except Southampton, who got to keep their best player. He ended his strike and he's playing very well, so they're obviously quite happy with how this panned out. Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino, meanwhile, is still trying to figure out which one of Mousa Dembele, Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb is best for what would have been the Schneiderlin role.

At this point, it would be pretty easy for Schneiderlin to keep his mouth shut, since he's doing well on a team that's doing well and speaking out about the saga does him no good. But he's a very outspoken player with lots of really well-articulated opinions, so he went and gave a really long interview about the saga.

It's basically impossible to pick out a few quotes that help you get the gist of what happened in this interview, because The Telegraph's entire piece is more or less 500 words of Schneiderlin quotes, translated from an interview with France Football. You need to go read the whole thing.

"In recent months, there has been interest from clubs to me. Three, including Tottenham," he said. "From February to March, I and my agents, we talked with Southampton to evoke a start." He goes on to accuse the club of treating him like cattle, and says that the people in charge at Southampton would "burn the stadium down: if he was sold after all of Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren, Calum Chambers and Luke Shaw had left.

He was really mad, but he's less mad now, because Southampton are good and look like they might have a chance to finish above Spurs this year. And if they don't, he'll probably throw a fit again. "Of course I want to participate in the Champions League soon," Schneiderlin said. "I want to play every three days. I'm very ambitious."

Chances are he'll be doing that next summer. Who knows if it'll be for Spurs, Southampton, or someone else.