Jimmy_D

Sounds to me like we're giving van Dijk the narrative to come back in after we've not sold him. Blame the agent, get his head down, play well, fans happy.

A few seasons ago, I'd have said it was pessimistic to only expect 2 years out of a player that had just signed a 5 year contract... It's just plain weird that either the player or Liverpool are EXPECTING this to go through. With the rate of inflation in football transfer fees these days, every year he's got left is worth increasingly more. I'd say even at £75M he's being undervalued.

It's a bit more than a technicality. Legally Barcelona have absolutely no recourse to keep hold of their player. Without that they wouldn't be selling.

Neymar's situation is completely different. He has a release clause which it seems PSG have met. Barcelona don't really have a say in it and all the power really is in the player's hands there.

They will if they think they can get another year of service from a very good centre back, and then get £70M.

How often have you heard of a player not joining a club because they kept hold of their best players? Keeping hold of Schneiderlin didn't stop us getting VvD, for example. Not to mention that in VvD's case, we have every right to turn around and say they didn't go about it the right way.

Exactly. We need to be saying (and possibly already are) that both Liverpool and van Dijk gave up any chance of van Dijk moving to Liverpool when they tried to go behind Saints back to make it happen.

Yeah, would depend on the team we put out obviously, we might well see some academy players given a chance this season etc.

I really don't want to want to watch a season where on a regular basis, literally half of the outfield players lining up for Liverpool are players they've bought directly from us. Haven't bothered to work out exactly how much it'd be, but if he goes there, it wouldn't surprise me if the team that lines up against us has more minutes on the pitch for Southampton than the team we put out.

Yeah, realise that, more aimed at the claim it was due to refusal by VvD and him being fined bit. I'm skeptical about that to be honest.

Do you have a source for that, or are you just regurgitating the crap that's was started on twitter by AnfieldExpress?

The IP address suggested they were located in Liverpool or Manchester too

All signs point to 'yes'.

No idea what you're talking about

I only care about hurting Liverpool so far as it could actually help us keep hold of players against them.

Personally I'd be keeping VvD to hurt Liverpool. I don't see them getting back into the Champion's League without him, and Liverpool without CL are slightly less likely to take some of our other players that we might want to keep hold of.

Le Tiss and The Dell had an almost psychic link, and that day when he drew all the last reserves of magic out of both himself and The Dell for one last incredible moment... It still feels like there was something supernatural happening that day.

Especially if Liverpool don't get back into the Champions League.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/834311/Virgil-van-Dijk-Liverpool-transfer-news Looks like Monk managed to indirectly make it all the way up to a national newspaper.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-transfer-news-naby-keita-13395364

'With great power comes great responsibility' Or alternatively you could take us back to the glory days of convincing Twitter that Richard Chaplow to Leeds was a done deal. That said, it could all still happen, I'd be pretty gutted if VvD does go to Liverpool. If we can't keep hold of a player we've given the captain's armband to when he has half a decade left on his contract... there really is no point in seeing ANY player as anything other than a mercenary, here to do a job for us, but not to be celebrated.

Fair enough. Would be quite funny if it turns out to be wrong after you've caused that big a twitter storm... You've managed to make a pretty big impact on the odds in the last few minutes too...

They're going to have to turn the Liverpool games into bubble games at this rate.

Really hope you're wrong on this one. Liverpool getting him for any price after everything that's happened would just be a slap in the face. My season ticket came through the door a few minutes ago, so that was good timing...

Looks like they're at risk of losing Can as well. Considering they just snuck their way into Europe and are at the highest peak they've had in a good few years, transfers don't seem to be going too well for them this summer.