The offer is reported to be £2.5m, decent by Championship standards, but below average by cash-rich Premiership standards for a proven international. Saints rejected it out of hand with Burley very bullish about the player's future in The Echo:
"Certainly, Chris is not a player we're even thinking about letting go. He has two years left on his current deal, he's our player of the season and he signed a contract at the end of last season because he did so well. We'll be talking with him again about extending his contract."
Often the denial is a standard way of pushing the price up and alerting other clubs to a player's availability, but in this case that's about as emphatic a denial as you could hope for.
Make no mistake without serious investment Saints are going to be struggling financially, but the sale of Gareth Bale for an initial £5m has at least kept the wolves from the door for now.
Even if Fulham do come back with an improved bid, and it appears likely that they will, Saints would face the classic Championship problem. While you can sell quality players, it is almost impossible to replace them, especially one with Chris Baird's qualities.
The player of the season came through our academy and stuck with the club despite years spent on the sidelines when just about every other player would have left.
Having made his breakthrough towards the end of the 2005/6 season, he held our leaky defence together through shear strength of character, out-competing and out-muscling much larger players.
They say money is everything in football, but money can't buy his kind of committment and it certainly can't replace it.