Southampton Admit van Dijk Could Be Sold in January

I mean, it’s basically the end of November so we’re practically in December which is just before January and re-opening wounds that still haven’t healed seems perfectly reasonable. Presumably, in a very clever ploy to throw Liverpool off their game, Southampton have “reluctantly admitted” that van Dijk may be looking at a January exit from the club.

The admission from Mauricio Pellegrino came in the middle of Thursday’s press conference when he was asked whether van Dijk would still be at the club when the January transfer window closes.

“I don’t know,” The MIrror reports Pellegrino saying. “I can’t control the market.”

“You never know, because when we talk about money everybody has got a price. The budget is to sign players and the biggest teams have got money to try to sign players. I can’t decide about that. This is a question for our owners.”

“Everybody is focused on their area, to try to bring the best players possible for their club,” Pellegrino added. “It is something that happens every single transfer window. We have got a lot of good players and most of the teams want to sign them.”

While this may sound like a softening stance from Pellegrino and Southampton, it’s far too early to be getting optimistic about anything VVD-related (and besides, optimism gets crushed. I’m just trying to look out for everyone). Nonetheless, Liverpool have learned from this summer’s drawn-out and horrifically painful fiasco, and will only put in a bid for van Dijk if they’re invited to do so by Southampton.

Until then, the closest we’re getting to van Dijk will be his Saturday visit to Anfield with the rest of Southampton.