Virgil van Dijk is "certain" to leave Southampton says ex-Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp

Aditya Devavrat 21:09 08/08/2017
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  • Jamie Redknapp believes Virgil Van Dijk is “certain” to leave Southampton this summer, with the former Liverpool midfielder saying the Saints “cannot really complain”.

    Van Dijk handed in a transfer request on Monday, but Southampton are said to be unwilling to sell regardless.

    Chelsea and Liverpool are the two clubs rumoured to be in the hunt with the latter initially dropping their interest earlier this summer after Southampton reported them to the Premier League for an illegal approach.

    Despite Southampton’s stance, Redknapp is adamant that the Dutchman will leave the club soon.

    “He has put in a transfer request and I think that probably suits Southampton,” Redknapp told SkySports. “Let’s be honest…Southampton are a selling club.

    “If you have any ambition to be a top player you leave Southampton.”

    Southampton have sold a number of their most important players in recent summers, many of them to Liverpool, including Sadio Mane, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, and Nathaniel Clyne.

    If Van Dijk joins that list, he will fetch a huge profit for the club, as the Dutchman cost Southampton £13milllion but will likely command a transfer fee close to £60million having signed a new six-year deal last summer.

    “They have always sold their best players and now they are about to sell another one,” Redknapp said. “They should be happy they can reinvest or bring another player through the academy.”

    “I don’t blame Virgil one bit. This is what happens in football. He will already know how much he could get at Liverpool, how much he could get at Chelsea.

    “He could probably earn three or four times his Southampton money…why wouldn’t you want to go and play for a better club?”

    Both Redknapp and his Sky Sports colleague, Jamie Carragher, think Van Dijk is likelier to end up at Liverpool, despite Chelsea’s status as Premier League champions and the “pull of London”. The Reds “desperately” need a centre-back and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has been a long-time admirer of Van Dijk.

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