Once the transfer market reopens Virgil Van Dijk is set to become the most expensive defender in world football after Southampton agreed to sell the centre-back to Liverpool for a fee of £75 million.
A lot of people have questioned the huge spending but a lot of people – including Gary Neville have also come to defend Liverpool and them paying £75 million for Virgil Van Dijk.
And today in an interview with Sky Sports, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp shared his thought on the signing.
“Quality. That’s why we got him. That’s why we were interested in him,” Jurgen Klopp replied when he was asked what Van Dijk will bring to Liverpool.
“It’s quite difficult at the moment: he’s still technically a player of Southampton, that’s how it is. We will have much more time and, I imagine, much more opportunities to talk about him.
“I can imagine people think, ‘Wow, what a number it is’, but of course, for me, it’s not really interesting. We don’t make the prices, the market makes the prices.
“The first thing all Liverpool supporters should forget quite soon is the price. We only talk about the player, what he can bring in, his qualities, his mentality, his character, all that stuff.
“That’s why we are really happy about it.”
Reading the interview one thing is sure that even Jurgen Klopp is concerned that the price tag will put an extra baggage on Van Dijk’s shoulder and the centre-back will have shed it off as soon as possible. A £75 million price tag will mean that every move he makes on the pitch will be heavily scrutinized and the Dutch International will have to come up with a string of good performance in order to shut his critics down.
