Liverpool are set to face potential competition for Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk in near future, as reports from Daily Mirror have claimed that Barcelona have entered the fray as well.
The source further adds that the Catalan club sent their scouts to watch the ‘unsettled’ 26-year-old centre-back during Netherlands’ clash against Sweden last week and that they have been left impressed by his performances. With that being done, the club is now looking at a possibility of launching a January bid for the defender, which will leave Liverpool completely red-faced.
Van Dijk’s desire to leave St. Mary’s was made certain when the defender handed in an official transfer request a couple of months back as he wanted to “play European football again and challenge for major honours.”
By the time, Liverpool had made their interest prominent and the Netherlands international was keen on moving to Liverpool. Southampton, however, had lodged an official complaint on Liverpool, accusing them of falsely approaching the player during the transfer window. Following all this, Liverpool eventually decided to step back from the negotiation and even went on to issue a public apology, saying that they “have ended any interest in the player.”
Southampton, on the other hand, rejected van Dijk’s transfer request right away. Van Dijk even trained alone for a while before eventually returning to the first team squad in Southampton’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace back in September.
It is certain that Southampton do not want to sell van Dijk and even if they do, reports suggest that they would rather sell him abroad rather than letting him join a Premier League club. Both the clubs, be it Barcelona or Liverpool, need a certain defensive reinforcement in the squad. Speaking for Barcelona’s part, the Catalonians only have Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti and Javier Mascherano for the centre-back spot.
For Liverpool, the need of a centre-back has been there for a long time. Take the current season for instance, a series of defensive blunders have seen the Reds conceding 12 goals in 8 games already, with that 5-0 defeat to Manchester City being the most distressing one.
Both Liverpool and Barcelona were on each other’s necks this summer over a potential move for Philippe Coutinho. Barcelona submitted a number of bids for the Brazilian, but Liverpool stood firm in their stance of not letting him go. And now, the two clubs look all set to fight it out again in January, over the signing of Virgil van Dijk.
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