The level of ineptitude in the Liverpool transfer committee and board is to be marveled at regarding the transfer of Virgil van Dijk.
It was expected that the 25-year-old Southampton man would end up being a Red in a few days after he claimed that he only wants to play for the Merseyside club and under Jurgen Klopp.
But after yesterday’s apology from us (BBC), there isn’t any chance of us signing the Dutch defender as we stated our interest in him is over, or you would think so.
Sam Wallace of the Telegraph believes that even though the Saints aren’t happy with our conduct regarding the leaks to the media about Van Dijk joining, we still have a chance of signing him.
“Southampton were well aware that their player was being tapped up, but when multiple stories emerged this week that he had decided to join Liverpool, the view at St Mary’s was that enough was enough”, wrote Wallace.
“A world-record offer could possibly make them reconsider” added the journalist but he was quick to note that the Saints are not going to make it easy, “This summer the mood [at Southampton] is very different to previous years.”
One final bid for Van Dijk?
While Wallace might suggest contacting Southampton for one final bid that would cross the £60 million mark or so, it would be advisable for us not to even call them up for a couple of weeks.
The last thing we would need is another ban as we have to deal with one regarding the signing of academy players.
Jurgen Klopp too must be fuming at the prospect of losing out on his priority signing from the summer and this does throw a major spanner in our team as we looked to have sealed the deal for one of the best players in the Premier League.
We could look to sign the Dutchman via the proper channels later on, which would mean contacting Southampton first and then discussing terms before negotiating with the player should the bid be accepted.
That isn’t a route normally taken in most cases as “tapping” of players is normal in this day and age of football. However, Southampton seems to be peeved about our chase and all this has done is thrown us into the deep end while the Saints would be losing out on one of their best player in years.
