Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger has ruled out a move for Virgil van Dijk this summer despite Liverpool and Chelsea circling.
Another day, another dagger to the hearts of Liverpool fans everywhere.
It’s been well documented all summer that Southampton centre half Virgil van Dijk is Jürgen Klopp’s primary – and possibly only – defensive target but that the south coast club is sick of having their best players cherry picked year after year.
With Southampton’s ownership undergoing a bit of a switch up in recent days, it was theorised that perhaps the Reds would have easier access to the player and that negotiations would potentially be made far simpler.
Of course, nothing is ever simple for Liverpool Football Club and we shouldn’t have had our hopes up really.
Despite van Dijk doing all he can to engineer a move away from his current club, Southampton are refusing to budge and with Ralph Krueger – the club’s chairman – seemingly confirming that no offer will convince them to sell the player, it looks as if Liverpool’s pursuit could be all but over.
The Daily Echo report that Krueger is hopeful of keeping the core of Southampton’s squad as together for as long as possible as they look to rid themselves of the selling club tag: “Our stance remains based on our strategy from May when we spoke last.
“I already told you the numbers that we have transferred in and transferred out and it is time to stop that. We really thought this was a good summer for that. Strength of the contracts, age of the group and the experiences of last year like going to a cup final gave us the feeling this is a group that tasted that winning and keeping them together would give us the chance to reach another level.
“Virgil is not the only player that is involved in this he is part of the whole strategy of not selling. Nobody is for sale that we don’t want to sell and so he is not for sale in this window. We have said it more than once.
“We are not done with the window yet. We are still looking at some options. I am not going to promise anything. It has got to be something that truly strengthens the squad and fits into our group.
“We are still looking and at the end of the transfer window we will see who we have and what we have… of course everybody will open their arms when Virgil comes back and we go at it.”
Interestingly, despite the finality of his previous statement, Krueger did appear to backtrack slightly when asked about what might happen should a truly ludicrous sum of money get offered up for any of his squad.
“I will tell you one thing – over the years we have spoken I don’t give definite answers where there isn’t a definite,” he responded cryptically.
“With all the knowledge I have today and all the information I have on my plate right now my answer is we are carrying our strategy through the summer and that’s it.”
Make of this what you will. All I get from this is that Liverpool need to stop dealing with clubs that employ a man named Ralph.
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