Virgil van Dijk was omitted from the Southampton squad that traveled to France for their preseason preparations. In what was a hardly unsurprising move, the 26-year-old seems to be edging closer to an exit from the club and looks more likely to join Liverpool.
The Dutch defender has become one of the most sought after players in the Premier League and we are in pole position to sign him despite publishing an apology after being warned by the Saints of a complaint about tapping him up.
Van Dijk was then forced to train alone by new manager Mauricio Pellegrino because he wanted to leave the club. That was after the Dutch defender had travelled with the club to Austria for an earlier preseason camp and this latest stance should be enough to signal his exit from Southampton.
The Daily Mail claims that we will only move for the defender once we get a green signal from the Saints. When Jurgen Klopp was asked about the entire saga and the criticism we had to deal with regarding the apology, the manager said (as quoted by Express):
“I didn’t even know that I was criticised, that I’m still criticised. Was the club criticised? That’s not nice. We said apologies, done. How can we say anything more about this?”
A Tough Situation For Southampton To Be In
With Van Dijk effectively going on strike, there isn’t a lot Southampton can do at the moment. Keeping him in his current state would mean that he probably won’t be fit enough to play or even be in the right frame of mind before the season starts.
If the Saints do want to teach him a lesson, they can banish him to the reserve side and let him waste his time there but the club would not have the finances to keep Van Dijk without playing him.
Southampton have to decide what to do with the Dutch defender and it is only a matter of time before they should sell him to another club. With Chelsea and even Manchester City interested in the defender, it could lead to a tug of war but Van Dijk had already stated that he wants to play for us next season.
This entire saga will continue and get murkier in the days to come. We should be the ones signing Van Dijk but this deal will probably take place in the last few days of the transfer window.
