Jimmy_D

So everything you're right about is you being ITK, and everything you turn out to be wrong about was you speculating or it changed then?

You'd be surprised just how tiny the next club markets are. Besides, newspaper stories about him going to Arsenal were always going to affect the odds.

Of course I was being completely serious when I posted about not being able to sign promising young players on long contracts in a thread about signing a promising young player on a long contract...

Would imagine VvD would move over to the right as he's right footed. I believe he can play both sides of CB?

Haha, that has to be a direct message to Liverpool.

Sounds like he's potentially an awesome signing. Not much more than we paid for VvD either... when you consider the inflation that's occurred since then... If we can get VvD's head back from wherever it seems to have rolled to, our defence could be looking very strong indeed. Obviously our stance with VvD is absolutely killing our chances of signing young promising players on long contracts...

Shane Warne put less spin on a cricket ball than that headline puts on that article.

Very sad news. RIP

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/08/21/chelsea-ready-wait-virgil-van-dijk-step-transfer-activity-window/ Maybe clubs are finally starting to think there might be some teeth in the tapping up rules?

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/steven-gerrard-says-signing-virgil-13503845 A current Liverpool employee spouting off about signing van Dijk yet again. There's absolutely no way we can let him go there.

It's worth pointing out that 'no extra funds this window' is a window where we've broken our record transfer fee, and since they took over have stated we won't be selling VvD, potentially turning down a world record fee for a defender. General consensus from the media was that we wouldn't be splashing the cash, but are now a bit stronger financially than we were. Also as has been pointed out elsewhere, it looks like their debt is secured against other assets they already had, and is theirs, not the club's. We've seen first hand what can happen when ownership goes wrong, so it's right to be cautious, but I haven't seen anything that's actually happened to be concerned about yet.

Absolutely cracking goal tonight, Le Tiss himself would have been happy with that finish.

Wouldn't surprise me. There are more Premier League clubs than just us suddenly enjoying 'we don't need the money'. £12M for Long looks like an absolute bargain now! We're probably still paying instalments on him... The playing field in financial terms in the Prem is definitely becoming more level. I'm sat here expecting us to turn down a world record fee for a defender. Even as I type that it seems a little bit insane.

I think that's more or less that. The 'not definite' is probably down to the fact that at the start of this window you could have safely said that Neymar is definitely not for sale... it's very slightly possible an insane offer that we literally can't ignore comes in from someone other than Liverpool.

The fact you're taking what one anonymous person has said on a forum as gospel, and are immediately using it as a stick to beat the club with says quite a lot.

For what it's worth, SSN reporting that we're still saying that VvD won't be sold.

Without them, I'm not sure there would be a Southampton FC to support. Just keeping us in existence would have made them legends in my eyes. For us to have enjoyed the success we have under them... Thank You.

It's all right there at the very bottom of every page.

That's... odd. I mean, I know The Express is basically a red top, but even so... Also, it's possibly copyright infringement, unless they had permission to use content from this site.

Night and day compared to last season, best I've seen us play in ages.

It's their fans and the pundits that have treated this like a done deal, like we don't have any right to keep hold of him, that's ****ed me off most during this.

And again! I can see why they're after VvD. Why they're not after another defender that can just tie his own shoelaces is a mystery though.

VvD's Liverpool Tax just went up.

I wonder if they met up in Blackpool?

I really don't think it comes down to cash with VvD going to Liverpool. They can already afford it purely in terms of amount of money.