On Wednesday evening Liverpool announced the arrival of Virgil van Dijk. The Orange-international is said to be 84.5 million euros from Southampton on 1 January and is the most expensive defender of all times. Gary Neville calls the transfer sum’ incredible’, but assumes that Van Dijk will provide Liverpool’s defence with a considerable injection of quality.
The former defender of Manchester United had said that he had seen the transfer coming, but hadn’t foreseen that Liverpool would eventually feel so deeply trapped in the pouch for Van Dijk,”It’s a lot of money. When I first heard it, I thought’ wow, £75 million!’,”he tells Sky Sports,”It’s an incredible amount. Liverpool, however, needs and will have to pay for defenders. That is how the market works and it will not change.
Neville states that Southampton is a bacon buyer with the million transfers,”It’s a fantastic deal for that club. If, however, Liverpool succeeds in becoming more stable in the top matches, it will also be a good deal for them”, he continues:”The transfer price will be forgotten within two years if Liverpool is able to pick up prizes and get its defences in order. The latter is crucial because in top matches they panic and capitulate quite quickly. From that point of view, it is to be hoped that the lowering of such a sum will pay off, but Southampton would bite your hand off if they could get that money”.
Is Virgil van Dijk one of the five best centre defenders in the world?
