Southampton are no strangers to doing business with Liverpool, with Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, and Sadio Mane all having left St Mary’s for Anfield in recent years.
Selling Virgil van Dijk would be a new low. Not only would it decimate Mauricio Pellegrino’s defence, it would represent a thoroughly embarrassing climbdown after forcing Liverpool to apologise for their conduct earlier this summer via a statement on their official website.
However, they may have little choice.
The centre-back seems determined to force a move. The Mirror are reporting that he has once again told Pellegrino he will refuse to play for the club.
Southampton’s Premier League season begins in just nine days’ time when they host Swansea City and they will not want the Van Dijk saga to still be rumbling on by then.
It’s reported that the club had planned to reintegrate the 26-year-old back into the main group for first team training, as he has been training alone. He was also left behind on their pre-season tour of France.
Not only is Van Dijk determined to leave, he insists it’s Liverpool he wants to join, making any attempt at shifting him elsewhere to save face pointless.
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