The truth is, Liverpool will stand no chance of signing Southampton’s Virgil Van Dijk unless we finish our Premier League campaign with a win next weekend – which will confirm our qualification into next season’s Champions League…
Our rivals for his signature though are Chelsea, and having won the title last week, are potentially in the driving seat for his signature.
SEE MORE:
Wijnaldum on how Liverpool can make final ‘biggest game of the season’ easy
According to Dominic Fiefeld in the Guardian, Southampton ‘anticipate’ that their Dutch centre-back will sign for the Blues this summer and not Jurgen Klopp’s Reds.
Chelsea already have Gary Cahill, David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta at the back, but the upcoming departure of legendary captain John Terry means there’s room in the squad for one more.
Antonio Conte’s Blues have more financial clout than we do, but our need for Van Dijk is greater and we’d hope to pull out all the stops and persuade him of our bright future.
For now though, next weekend is the priority – and in Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren – we have two centre-backs who’ve kept four clean-sheets in five.