The one transfer that really could have transformed Liverpool into Premier League contenders would have been the signing of Virgil van Dijk. We did track the player and a deal was in place before it all fell apart and we had to publish an apology to the fans, players and Southampton.

There were reports that we would sign him on deadline day but we never actually made a real bid for him and now it seems like the club will revisit the Dutch defender in the January transfer window.

The Telegraph reports that although Van Dijk is now back training with the Southampton first-team, Liverpool and Chelsea want to sign the 26-year-old star. The Saints are standing firm as they do not want to sell the player and they will look to hold on to him at least until next season.

Van Dijk had only signed a new deal with the Saints in January and it actually ends in 2022. So this situation is the same as that between Philippe Coutinho and us. While a deal in January seems a little tough to be a guaranteed one, Gabriele Marcotti, the ESPN pundit claims that the Dutch defender had a deal in place with two clubs before things fell out.

He had a deal in place with two of those clubs…. but sometimes stuff happens, as you saw…

— Gabriele Marcotti (@Marcotti) September 4, 2017

Southampton And Van Dijk Make Amends

The relationship between Southampton and Van Dijk also seems to have thawed now as the player returned to training with the first-team. Initially, Van Dijk had handed in a transfer request and wanted a move but the Saints fined him for this gesture and made him train with the U-23s.

Van Dijk has to regain his fitness before he can play for the Saints and it does seem likely he will become their regular centre-back after this rather crazy transfer window which did not work out for the 26-year-old.

We were able to keep hold of Coutinho even though Barcelona were ready to splash a crazy amount of money for the Brazilian, while Southampton have done the same for their star, and maybe a direct approach without all the tapping up business can get us the defender in January.

Jurgen Klopp and his team should keep a Plan B ready too, as we cannot be caught out with just one player that can do things for us. We have a lot of money to spend and once we get a quality centre-back, we should be ready to challenge for a number of titles.

https://youtu.be/4ng5Nb4Cdk0