Reports in Spain are suggesting that Barcelona and Real Madrid are lining up a double move for Jurgen Klopp and Virgil van Dijk next summer, with neither club content with their coaches and central defensive options.
The pressure is always on both Spanish clubs to perform at the very highest level, and Real Madrid, in particular, have been well below that over the last few months, missing out on both La Liga and the Champions League last season.
Barcelona, meanwhile, are still reeling from the semi-final second leg at Anfield, with manager Ernesto Valverde remaining under scrutiny.
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The report comes from AS (via the Metro), and suggests that whichever side fails to win the league, providing they didn’t win the Champions League instead, would replace their coach with Klopp, while Van Dijk is said to be a target whatever the outcome this campaign.
Klopp, though, is under contract until 2022 with the Reds and will not leave before that. Even after that, it is quite hard to picture him at a club like either of the two Spanish giants. As good as they are, the German tends to prefer a more long-term challenge.
As for Van Dijk, the Dutchman will be 29 by next summer. It would take a world-record bid for the Reds to even bother responding to any interest in him, and there is no intention of selling him.
Not long ago, it would have seemed inevitable that both men would be departing Anfield sooner rather than later, but not anymore. The Reds are now just as good as the top two in Spain, if not better, so there is no reason for anyone to want to leave.