Virgil van Dijk hasn’t spoken publicly since the collapse of our move for him in June.
The Dutchman posted a sulky Instagram photo of him looking angry on a plane one month ago, but has been quiet ever since.
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He does however occasionally drop no very subtle ‘likes’ – all of which hint at his unhappiness and the fact he doesn’t mind upsetting the apple cart to benefit his own career.
Wouldn’t even say Van Dijk’s Twitter ‘likes’ are especially cryptic to be honest. Can Saints keep a captain who so obviously wants to leave? pic.twitter.com/B10jyO0N9t
— Empire of the Kop (@empireofthekop) July 7, 2017
Now, we obviously know that van Dijk liking Rick Ross’s tweets doesn’t mean we’re going to sign him, but they do demonstrate the centre-back’s eagerness to leave.
If he were happy to be back with the Saints for pre-season, he’d say as much, wouldn’t he?
Liverpool publicly pulled out of a deal to sign the 25-year-old after Southampton reported us to the Premier League for illegally approaching him – but tellingly – we haven’t moved on alternative centre-back targets – despite it being the position we most need to strengthen.
If we are still interested, it’ll require the player to actively hand in a transfer request, although we can be sure Southampton would prefer to sell to anybody other than us.