Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
With Virgil Van Dijk picking up an injury at the beginning of the year and subsequently having to miss the rest of the season it was felt by many that he had played his last football for Southampton. Due to his impressive performances in the first half of the campaign he had developed a long list of admirers looking to acquire his services.
With that in mind Southampton were always going to struggle to keep hold of the Dutch international over the course of this transfer window but that said they are not going down without a fight. That is because the South Coast club have reported Liverpool to the Premier League after accusing them of tapping up the 25 year old.
It must be pretty galling for Southampton to have to once again go for the process of possibly losing another player to Liverpool. The list is already at 5 with Nathanial Clyne, Dejan Lovren, Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Sadio Mane already swapping Hampshire for Merseyside.
So it seems as if their patience has finally started to wear thin, you do have to have sympathy for the Saints though as they are now acting as something of a feeder club for the Anfield outfit. It’s almost as if Liverpool’s scouting network is not allowed to go any further than the English Channel.
Southampton may well be irate of the constant talent drain that has gone North over the past few years but in this particular instance their grievance is that they believe Liverpool have unsettled their most prized asset by making an illegal approach for the former Celtic defender.
Liverpool are yet to make a formal approach for Van Dijk and Southampton are somewhat displeased with the fact that their player has already gone on record by saying he is keen on a move to Anfield. In their opinion something does not quite end up and there must have been talks going on in the background.
It does however seem a case of if and not when Southampton part company with their player but it certainly is not going to come cheap for whoever finally acquires his services. It is believed that the signature of Van Dijk is going to set you back a cool £60m.
A transfer fee that will indirectly help Brendan Rodgers at Celtic as the club were wise enough to write in a 10% sell on fee clause into the deal that saw Van Dijk swap Celtic Park for St Mary’s back in September 2015 for a fee of £13m.
That means that Southampton’s valuation be met then Celtic will make £6m for absolutely nothing, money that will go into extending the Hoops’s dominance North of the border and also trying to improve their fortunes in European competition.
Liverpool however are not the only Premier League team in the running for Van Dijk as Chelsea and both Manchester clubs have previously declared an interest, although at this current point in time it is believed that City’s interest has cooled due to the fee involved.
This allegation of tapping up is something of a hands off to Liverpool as Southampton state they are not in a position to sell and feel that the Premier League 4th place finishers last season are trying to unsettle Van Dijk and force a move through.
Ultimately though in cases like this it comes down to posturing by the club that owns the players registration, Southampton do not have to sell after a solid display in the league last season but they are almost powerless in trying to get Van Dijk to stay into the upcoming campaign.
Whether the Premier League uphold the complaint remains to be seen but do not be surprised if this is Southampton just trying to drive a hard bargain to try and squeeze a few more million out of what is for all intents and purposes their parent club.
