Southampton’s chairman Ralph Krueger is adamant his side will not sell star player Virgil van Dijk this summer.
The Dutch centre-back has emerged as perhaps the best defender in the Premier League, and naturally, there’s been multiple links from big clubs to his services – including ourselves – who are in desperate need of a centre-back.
SEE MORE:
Liverpool’s new CEO Peter Moore: ‘I live and die Liverpool’
This term, we’ve conceded 33 goals in the Premier League, the most of any side in the top eight, including West Brom…
Last night we lost 3-1 to Leicester with Joel Matip and Lucas both struggling at the back.
Liverpool have consistently poached Southampton’s best players, but the EFL Cup finalists are desperate to stop selling us their best talent.
“We are just out of the January transfer window and are striving to keep this group together and to build on it,” Krueger told talkSPORT, cited in the Echo.
“Virgil is very committed us for a long time and we don’t see anything but that in our future. He is our team captain and we don’t see him anywhere else than in red and white stripes.”
“We don’t want to do what we did in the last three summers every year. We would like to move away from that and we feel confident this summer will be a lot quieter and we can keep the core of this team moving forward for a few years.”
Premier League clubs are all flush with cash due to extravagant television deals, so nobody is really in a position where they have to sell.
The towering defender is potentially world-class and we’d absolutely love him at Anfield, but recognise it would likely take a club record fee to acquire him.
It’s that kind of money we need to be spending on a defender though to sort out a backline which for years has leaked goals.