Wijnaldum Talks van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold

Gini Wijnaldum is a great guy. And sometimes, part and parcel of his greatness is his willingness to sit down with various news outlets to talk about how much he loves his (current and future) teammates. This week, Gini smiled his beautiful smile as he talked about Trent Alexander-Arnold, who scored an excellent goal against Swansea, and then kept on smiling as he talked about newly minted Red and fellow Dutchman, Virgil van Dijk.

Alexander-Arnold scored a killer goal (his first in the Premier League) during the Reds’ 5-0 rout against Swansea this Tuesday. While the 19-year-old is understandably pretty chuffed about his goal, Wijnaldum is quick to add that the whole team is right there with him.

"It's always special if a player comes from the Academy to the first team," Wijnaldum said after the match. "In his case, he was also a Liverpool supporter, so everyone wants him to do [well], and us as a team because he is a good guy. [He's] always trying to learn and get better, so we were all happy that he scored a goal.”

And the rest of the week gave Wijnaldum (and all of us) a lot more to be happy about.

"I am really happy," Wijnaldum told Sky Sports when the van Dijk signing was announced. "When I spoke to [van Dijk] on the phone, I told him that I was happy that he's coming to join us and that I will have a bit of Dutch support in the dressing room now!

"On the pitch, from what I've seen with the national team, he's a leader. He's always trying to help everyone and help the defensive line. I think he will help us."

"It will be positive for the club and for Virgil. Now we have to think about the future."

A future with incredible, proven defenders like van Dijk and rising stars like Alexander-Arnold sounds like a thing of beauty. Hopefully the Reds can live up to Gini’s enthusiasm.