Virgil Van Dijk

[Jockey]

Pretty neatly sums up the situation at present I think.

 

Gambles sometimes work.

[Brownie]

Pretty neatly sums up the situation at present I think.

 

Gambles sometimes work.

Sometimes they cost you a job as well. Swings and roundabouts.

[aws]

I can see the sense in waiting for VVD if Klopp wants him that bad and I expect he'll be available in Jan. I can see why we wouldn't want to spend £25m plus on a makeweight like Evans when we expect to go back in for VVD. But couldn't we have used the Origi loan fee to find a decent CB for a season's loan?

[jimmycase]

That is just nonsense. If we are not going to wait, we'd have moved on.

 

If you can't even stick up for your own arguments, not sure what we are talking for.

 

Nothing makes sense. We pissed him off so much that he moves from wanting to sign for us to preferring to sign for us! Fucking hell i'd hate to see him when he's angry!

 

Now, we won't bother bidding in future for a player whom we've made our first choice ahead of anybody else! So, nobody but VVD but we can't bid, and as soon as the window closes, now that we have nobody - time to move on! Yeah okay. That makes sense.

 

Haha, here we go, trying the deflection routine because you've been bested. Ive stuck to my argument about van Dijk. I said we should have bid for him because the FA \ PL said there was no tapping up case to answer.

 

Then you try and divert the argument with 'what if klopp's to blame.'

[Brownie]

I can see the sense in waiting for VVD if Klopp wants him that bad and I expect he'll be available in Jan. I can see why we wouldn't want to spend £25m plus on a makeweight like Evans when we expect to go back in for VVD. But couldn't we have used the Origi loan fee to find a decent CB for a season's loan?

Why would they let VVD go in January?

[magicrat]

We didn't officially bid for player that wasn't for sale shocker

[Barrington Womble]

This thread has been busy today. I'm on board. Let's hold tight, he'll be available on a bosman soon enough.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

He wouldn't be fit to start for us anyway. He hasn't played for 6 months and has spent the entirety of pre season on the sidelines. We should go back in for him in January.

We've had three months since the end of the season to work on a transfer. Given the January window is open for only four weeks, I doubt we'll have finished sharpening our pencils by the 31st.

[aws]

Why would they let VVD go in January?

Same reason we'll probably let Coutinho go if Barca come sniffing again. Why keep an unhappy player around when someone is offering you more than he's worth?

[Brownie]

Same reason we'll probably let Coutinho go if Barca come sniffing again. Why keep an unhappy player around when someone is offering you more than he's worth?

But by that logic they would have sold now as it's easier getting a replacement in.

[thompsonsnose]

Peak Coutinho has passed.

[aRdja]

[Brownie]

On Van Dijk, the club stuck to its position of not bidding due to the apology etc yet people are assuming we'll go back in for him in January or next summer. Surely the clubs position will remain the same?

 

How could it be any different?

[jimmycase]

Precisely. If the club cant bid this window (according to some), what makes it clear the club can legitimately bid in January of next summer?

 

There's also this idea SFC wouldnt sell yet they were briefing in the press they would sell for a 'silly' offer.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

I doubt VvD will be waiting for us in January. He's all but sacrificed kittens to get his move and we've fucked it all up in every conceivable way.

[The Woolster]

On Van Dijk, the club stuck to its position of not bidding due to the apology etc yet people are assuming we'll go back in for him in January or next summer. Surely the clubs position will remain the same?

 

How could it be any different?

 

Because it's a lot less likely we could get done for tapping him up as it's a new transfer window

[aws]

They've made their point and refused to be humiliated by us. They've now got a major player who wants to leave and everyone knows it will happen sooner or later. Same as we know it about Coutinho.

 

They'll both be gone within 12 months (unless they genuinely decide to stay) and I think Saints will sell in Jan for a big offer. Obviously they'd love to sell him elsewhere as their fans fucking hate us.

[The Guest]

The thing is if he absolutely wants out of there to a champions league club he's going to have to be sticking to his guns for the foreseeable. Signing that deal was a ridiculously bad decision. He may have made his mind up that he really wants to go and realistically Southampton could have done this with 4, 3 or even 2 years left on his contract. So in his mind he's thought I'm going to have to do this shit at some point to leave. It is going to be really interesting to see if he still refuses to play. I wouldn't be surprised if he did at least until January.

[niallers]

Can't we just hire him as a red Sox ambassador for the exact sum of the rest of his contract? He could then buy himself out of said contract thereby becoming a free agent. We could then, for example, give him twelvety grand a day to ply his trade with us!

[aws]

The thing is if he absolutely wants out of there to a champions league club he's going to have to be sticking to his guns for the foreseeable. Signing that deal was a ridiculously bad decision. He may have made his mind up that he really wants to go and realistically Southampton could have done this with 4, 3 or even 2 years left on his contract. So in his mind he's thought I'm going to have to do this shit at some point to leave. It is going to be really interesting to see if he still refuses to play. I wouldn't be surprised if he did at least until January.

If he is going to force an exit, he'll follow the Coutinho route of bad back/stress/not mentally ready etc.as then he's not breaking his contract just being a complete pain in the arse to have around. Easy to do if you don't mind being unpopular.

[Klopper60]

I have to believe that we talked to Southampton privately about Van Dijk and were told to piss off which is why we didn't make a bid. If not, this must be the most bewildering piece of (non)-transfer business ever. Klopp wanted him, he wanted Klopp, we needed him badly and yet no bid ....WTF ...!!

 

And what about Sakho ....Klopp sent him to Coventry months ago but was his crime so bad that he couldn't have atoned and let back into the team. He's our best defender, despite his flaws, and would surely have made the team stronger. We must have known that VVD wasn't coming days ago so why ship Sakho to Palace ...?

 

Klopp is a brilliant coach but too pig-headed and idealistic for his own good sometimes. For him to think that Klavan, Lovren, Gomez and Matip are good enough for us to win the league is madness. He should have had a plan B.

[G Richards]

Sakho's 'crime' was such that the manager didn't want him, and that's the bottom line. We might like to see reconciliation and so on, but if he's not for Klopp, then that's that. I back the manager to make the choice as he will rise and fall on the accumulation of such choices. 

 

The stubborn insistence on VVD or nothing in that position is arguably what sets Klopp apart from most posters on here who would dearly have loved to see a plan B. 

 

Klopp has players willing to run through brick walls for him. He evidently told VVD that he was the one he wanted, and VVD reciprocated. Had we gone in for a plan B I'm pretty sure VVD would be at Chelsea right now. 

 

The only reason we didn't get him was because Southampton were making a point. I think we will get him in January personally, but we'll see. In the meantime Klopp will do what he does and improve our team. We've had something like 7 clean sheets in the last 9/10 league games. We are not as bad at the back as is often reported. Yes, it can and should be better. I now expect Gomez to kick on and perhaps add the assuredness necessary to play in the middle if needed, and TAA looks fantastic at right back  too.

 

We're short, but it's not dire.  

[razor]

His wife prefers the shops in Southampton.

[Klopper60]

Not knocking Klopp ...love the fact that he's an idealist who spends frugally and would rather buy a player for 25 mill and coach him into an 80 mill one ...love his enthusiasm and intensity and how the players respond to him in kind ...and the fact that he throws kids like TAA and Gomez into the deep end and gives them the confidence to swim. Much rather have him than Guardiola, who was willing to spend 60 mill on Sanchez when he already has Aguero, Sterling, DeBruyne, both Silvas, Jesus and Sane, or Conte, who has never seen a young player good enough for the first team.

 

Also cognizant of our recent score in the clean sheet department and that our defense is improving.

 

However, it's still our Achilles heel and will be the cause if we prove unable to win the title this year. So I think a bit of old-fashioned German pragmatism would have served Jurgen well here. If Sakho had to go, then fine. But surely there must have been a stop gap replacement available for cheap somewhere until we, hopefully, can get Van Dijk in January.

[Arl arse]

What mystifies me is all throughout the window we were told by our ex players (Stevie, Carra etc.) that we desperately need reinforcements at the back, they even went so far as to name VVD as a possible candidate.

How did we think putting all our eggs in one unwilling to sell basket and betting the house on the one unattainable (maybe if we actually put a bid in, who knows) Centre back on the planet, would ever prove to be a successful tactic?

 

Utter fuckin madness not to have a back up plan.