Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger is adamant that Virgil van Dijk will still be at his club on Friday morning.
Since January there has been intense speculation that the former Celtic defender would be on the move with the hoops due a healthy slice of the fee after selling van Dijk to Southampton two years ago.
In June Liverpool were threatened with an FA enquiry over an alleged illegal approach for the defender and were forced into a statement withdrawing their interest.
Arsenal and Chelsea have also been linked to van Dijk but despite the player being in dispute with the club Krueger insists that there will be no last minute move.
“Virgil is not for sale in this window and it’s not personal,” the Southampton chairman said told The Guardian. “It’s not about him, it’s about an overall much, much, much bigger picture – a change of course for Southampton.
“The first summer I was here five players went out and six went in, not counting academy. Second summer three went out, seven came in, and third summer five went out, five came in. Now it is one out and two in, and this is who we want to become.
“We want to mature, we want to be a team that can profit from synergies that create a much more attractive football and a better product for the fans, and gives us a chance to get back into Europe.
“That’s one player in this whole equation of 25 and it is the visible one, but for us it’s the principle and it’s the path and it’s the statement we need to make to get to a new space as a club. We are very, very adamant about carrying this through. The new partnership has completely and wholly backed our strategy and plan and on 1 September people will see how serious we were and are.”
It would be a massive climbdown if Southampton were to sell van Dijk at the last minute with the club adamant throughout that their defender isn’t for sale.
Their only ‘get-out’ is the fact that van Dijk has been in dispute and training away from the first team squad but it does seem that in this instance player power may be denied.
