Liverpool ultimately failed in our seemingly never-ending pursuit of Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk.
Despite stories in every newspaper about the Dutchman’s potential Anfield switch, we didn’t actually lodge an official bid the entire summer.
This is pretty incredible, considering van Dijk’s inflammatory transfer request and the open letter than accompanied it last month…
SEE MORE:
(Video) Naby Keita just scored a world-class goal for Guinea after £55m LFC deal
Liverpool (or key personnel at the club) effectively ruined our chances of purchasing the 25-year-old in June, when our over-eagerness to tell the world we’d clinched his signature led to Southampton reporting us to the Premier League for an illegal approach – which was subsequently met with a public apology from Liverpool.
Herein lies the key moment: from this point, FSG promised Southampton’s board we would only bid if they told us implicitly that the defender was available (something we expected to happen later in the window). But the Saints remained incredibly stubborn and decided to keep van Dijk at the club against his will – much to the frustration of Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool’s fans.
Importantly, it was Klopp’s choice and Klopp’s choice only to not target an alternative. He rates van Dijk so highly, that he’s going to aggressively try and buy him in January, and if not then, next summer, claims Chris Bascombe in the Telegraph.
For Klopp, it’s van Dijk or nobody. At some point, he’ll sign for Liverpool. The player understands too that it’s a waiting game, but his heart on set on becoming the best defender in the world under Klopp.
His Anfield plan is long-term, as shown by the early purchase of Naby Keita for 2018, too.
Obviously, neither will help us before Christmas at the earliest, and time will tell if the boss will live to regret his decision to trust Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan and Joe Gomez so implicitly…
We really they hope they prove the majority of the fanbase wrong.