Virgil van Dijk may have been partnering William Saliba if Arsenal determined to signal him earlier than his Liverpool days.
Before his standing because the world’s greatest defender, the Dutchman started his journey in British soccer with Scottish giants Celtic in 2013. The Bhoys splashed out £2.6million for his providers as he joined the membership from boyhood membership Groningen.
Van Dijk was below fixed surveillance from varied Premier League golf equipment throughout his two-year stint at Celtic Park, with Arsenal and Liverpool amongst his suitors.
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While the 32-year-old finally joined Southampton in 2015 in a £13m deal, there was an opportunity he may have been suiting up for the North London aspect as a substitute of heading all the way down to the south coast.
According to former Celtic assistant boss John Collins, former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was a fan of the centre-back however determined in opposition to a transfer after ex-chief scout, Steve Rowley, believed Van Dijk was too “nonchalant”.
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“Arsenal’s chief scout thought he was too nonchalant,” Collins told beIN Sport. Maybe that was part of his game but he ticks so many of the other boxes. He’s got pace, power, balance, distribution and he’s good in the air. He can be a bit nonchalant but he is a quality player.”
Collins added that Brendan Rodgers “didn’t fancy” the defender and thought his present choices of Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren, and Mamadou Sakho was ok. “Gary McAllister was the assistant to Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool and I told him I hope you’re going to come and take Virgil but Brendan didn’t fancy him and didn’t think he was better than what he already had,” the previous Celtics participant remarked.
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The 55-year-old mentioned regardless of the massive golf equipment constantly watching him in motion, their concern stemmed in that he was doing it in an inferior league to the Premier League. “He would’ve cost around £12m – every team watched him regularly but the worry was he was showing it against Scottish players but you could tell he was strong, powerful and a well balanced player.”
Van Dijk spent simply two years at Southampton earlier than Liverpool forked out a then-world document payment for a defender in a £75m deal the place he is gone on to win the largest trophies in soccer.