Celtic star Virgil van Dijk set for £10m switch to Southampton.. even if Bhoys make Champions League group stage 06:58, 12 August 2015 By Keith Jackson SAINTS boss Ronald Koeman is confident he will secure a £10million transfer deal for Dutch ace Virgil van Dijk before the deadline
I read that earlier Lamby... I am at the point now where I want a smiley picture of him holding up a Saints shirt This Board is hopeless... we've only signed 6 players and there is only two and a half weeks left of the window
A Southampton insider said: “Ronald is extremely relaxed about the situation which is a surprise to some given his insistence that he needs another central defender. But the truth is he is more confident than ever of signing van Dijk. “The two clubs have an excellent relationship and Ronald believes they can do business even if Celtic make the Champions League, which hopefully they will.” In fact if Deila and his men do make it into the competition proper Celtic too may see an upside to cashing in on van Dijk rather than exposing him to some of the most lethal attackers in world football. In other words the defender’s value could actually depreciate over the course of a Champions League campaign depending on the luck of the draw. And our source added: “Southampton value the player at around £8m but they do have a lot of money at their disposal so, even if the final fee is closer to £10m, it might still represent good business for all parties."
As long as this doesn't turn out like the Toby fiasco then i don't mind when he signs as long as its in this window, If however he ends up signing for a premier league rival then questions will be asked and meltdowns will be had.
Virgil van Dijk ‘on cusp of £9million Southampton transfer from Celtic’ please log in to view this image Will Giles for Metro.co.ukWednesday
Someone reassure me that we do have a backup. The article says "Koeman is not believed to be pursuing any alternative targets." I hope this is just that the journalist doesn't know who we are looking at. We're bound to have an alternative aren't we? What if he gets injured playing for Celtic and there's only a couple of days left of the transfer window?
Take a look at his photo. Does he look like someone who gets anything right? He's just repeating what we really all know to be likely anyway.
Saints may have a back up, but Les said in the past that we don't sign anyone for the sake of it. Rather have no one than a wrong player....we've had a few of those in the past and they can be hard to shift. If we want an 'OK' player, we might as well give a youngster the chance. Frightening, but the club don't seem to panic like us fans do.