The Virgil Van Dijk Stays at Southampton Thread

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...uricio-pellegrino-warns-virgil-van-dijk-will/

 

£50m + Christensen would be a good deal imo
You'd want a little more than £50m after all this.

Anyone who thinks we undersold Mane done a u-turn on their opinion on that deal?
Does digging in your heels actually result in more money or just more drama?

 

I really do hope this is true.

 

Same - to be honest I would take 50M plus some add-ons just to get rid of the prick and be putting two fingers up to Liverpool at the same time.

 

Anyone who thinks we undersold Mane done a u-turn on their opinion on that deal?

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Err, no. We sold him too early in the previous window. Hell. letting L'pool swoop in and get such a quality player with so little fuss may well have caused this summer to pan out as badly as it has done.

 

I had a dream last night that VVD was playing at St Marys for Liverpool.
Funny thing was his leg was like rubber and he kept falling over.

It made me think that no only should I ease up on the cheddar before bed but the rather odd fact that clubs seem willing to sign a player who hasn't (to my knowledge) played a game of footy for several months.

I know he'll have to pass a medical but that doesn't tell you if the player he was before is still in there. J-Rod was (in my view) a poorer player because of a loss of confidence as much as any loss of pace. The evil part of me would laugh (while stroking one of the many cats of course) myself silly if VVD did similar. Unlikely but still surprised clubs are willing to take any risk when 70mill or so is concerned.

 

It will probably start a bidding war off tbh. Saints will most likely turn it down, inviting others to bid - That's when Liverpool will come in.

Could be totally wrong but that's my thinking behind this.

I still think he'll end up at City though, their CB's need bolstering.

 

I would be very surprised if Liverpool submit a bid; they are on very thin ice with EPL. I see Chelsea or City being the compromise and TBH l always thought he would have gone to Chelsea as it looks the perfect fit with the way Conte sets out his defence.

 

He'd be perfect for City, exactly what they need, and (genuinely not wumming) he'd have a better chance of winning things, if that's important to him.

His pay ceiling over time would also be way higher.

Not sure if Pep is quite getting this defending lark though. I'm amazed they weren't crawling all over him from day one.

 

I agree with all those points tbh.

The problem is he wants to play for Klopp, that holds some weight in this saga - although money talks and ultimately it's about money nowadays.

 

Yes thin ice. However, we can still bid without consequences the minute the player is up for sale.

I think we've been waiting for someone to bid (or an invite which is daft as that isn't happening!). The bottom line is he clearly won't play for you again, some of you might think he will but in reality it's a very, very slim chance. So it will come to the point that Southampton say to Chelsea 50mil isn't enough offer us 70 (for example). That opens the door for Liverpool to come in without any sanctions on them.

 

I think we'll block any move to Liverpool out of stubbornness.

 

Bit hard to butt in on a private conversation...neither Chelsea nor Southampton will be making public details of any discussions. That only leaves loose lips Virgil....and I assume he wold be onside before discussions started. Liverpool can make all the offers they like, but its not an auction...offers don't have to be taken.

 

That's a fans pov. Unfortunately football is big business and big businesses don't turn there noses up at extra millions.

We'll see. But stubbornness won't be a factor imo.

 

True. But it's getting to the point that it's pointless keeping him.

Player power wins 9/10 times in these situations.

 

Then perhaps its time someone did sit it out and enforce a contract....or at least enough of it to satisfy both parties. Don't forget that he's signed for another five years....he wouldn't have liked it if we'd shoved him out to Barnsley without asking him. Contracts work both ways...give the club and player security. He took a pay rise to extend his contract here.....what happened since then apart from scarcely playing on full pay (nice if we could have reduced his pay, but bugger...he had a contract). Annoying things, contracts.

 

Spot on.


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Interesting point....what is the value of pride? We can't speak for Saints, but is there a price we'd sell to Liverpool. For me it has to be so stupid it would never happen....so +10 or +20 million doesn't cut it. TBH....I don't think that would cut it for Les either. And it is very hard in today's market to judge what is stupid....the present standard for stupid is Neymar's price. Great player, but they are paying for his services only....they will never get that back.

 

It would be nice to see a team do that. But a team won't do it with their prize asset. If someone like Tadic (for example) did it then Saints may stand firm, but chucking a 60-70mil defender in the reserves or to Barnsley is just crazy in a business sense.

The problem is fans are fans. Clubs are businesses. That's why so many fans clash with owners. Arsenal being a prime example!

 

Look at it from Saints' point of view for once Sky. We have, at the moment, 2 proven first team CB's, plus one retuning from injury who hasn't played since January and is currently having a hissy fit. Would any club in its right mind expect to last until next January without doing everything possible to rehabilitate Virgil? Yes, argue away that we should have sold him earlier, or replaced him earlier, or both, but the fact is we haven't, the season starts next week and the transfer window shuts in 4 weeks. Neither you or I know what's going on behind the scenes despite all the rumours, but I would put a large sum of money on huge efforts being made to change Virgil's mind. We have a history of doing this: Jason Puncheon was in a similar position to VVD until he was talked round, and Morgan Schneiderlin and Sadio Mané both gave us an extra season after wanting to leave. The exception was Jose Fonte, who was a toxic presence for the first half of last season until West Ham took pity on him. I just can't believe that Saints will allow the same thing to happen again.

I still don't know if he'll stay or not, part of me wants rid of the idiot, but another part sees the best CB in the Premier League rotting on the sidelines and wants him back in a Saints shirt. Of all the possible outcomes, the best would be that he gives us another season like Schneiderlin and Mané did, and then goes for an even bigger fee next summer.