Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have made Southampton centre-half Virgil van Dijk their priority target for the January transfer window and are reportedly confident of concluding a deal ahead of their Premier League title rivals Chelsea, Liverpool and his former club Barcelona, reports James Ducker of Daily Telegraph.
Ducker adds that the Cityzens are currently in talks with Southampton over a potential transfer for van Dijk, who was a serious target for Jurgen Klopp this past summer. Van Dijk, who is contracted with the Saints until 2022, handed in an official transfer request but the South Coast club rejected it.
Manchester City, on the other hand, did some impressive business over the summer but failed to acquire a reliable centre-back. Towards the end of the summer window, Guardiola made a bid for Northern Ireland defender Jonny Evans, but West Bromwich Albion rejected their approach. It was thought they would go back for him in January given that Alan Pardew admitted he would listen to offers, but it seems van Dijk will be heading to the Etihad rather.
Guardiola doesn’t rate Eliaquim Mangala highly and the constant injury issues of skipper Vincent Kompany has left the Catalan with only John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi, with the former being injured right at this very moment. The need for a centre-back remains his primary concern.
Should the Netherlands international join the Sky Blues, he would obviously become Guardiola’s third choice centre-half given that the Spaniard rates Stones and Otamendi highly. Yet, van Dijk will be of utmost importance for the manager given that his side is alive in all competitions so far. Meanwhile, there were reports that Chelsea manager Antonio Conte was keen on signing van Dijk too, but the Blues haven’t made any respective progress thus far.
As things stand for Liverpool right now, missing out on van Dijk will be a huge blow, to say the least. In terms of defensive standards, we have been living on the edge and our recent blunders are a perfect specimen of it. Many football pundits, as well as the fans, have time and again urged Jurgen Klopp to sign a new centre-half and it now remains to be seen whether the German will acquire one or not.
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