The summer before Virgil van Dijk joined Liverpool FC, Man United was strongly linked to the Dutchman, although few people were aware of how close they were to signing him.
To put it mildly, Manchester United’s transfer choices in recent years have been dubious. Despite all of their bad transfers, they may have made the greatest transfer mistake of them all with the player they missed out on.
In order to improve on the previous season, in which United finished sixth, Jose Mourinho sought to stabilize his backline, therefore the club was in the market for defensive reinforcements back in the summer of 2017.
Virgil van Dijk, a defender who had been outstanding for Southampton throughout their two seasons of regular play in the Premier League’s top half, was one of several defenders connected to the team. However, things never progressed beyond what appeared to be rumors, and Mourinho signed Victor Lindelof of Benfica in an attempt to be closer to his native country.
Presumably, connections to Van Dijk were erroneous. However, Van Dijk’s Southampton teammate Charlie Austin disclosed how close the transfer was to happening.
Austin said to talkSPORT in 2021, “I remember the tail end of his Southampton career we were on the bench together at Chelsea away.” “Come on, Virgil, what’s going on, surely Man United must have been in for you?” I asked as I sat there. enormous English club, etc. “You know what Chaz, they signed Lindelof and it was like between me or Lindelof in the summer,” he remarked.
“I thought, ‘You’re kidding!'” He informed me on the bench that nobody is aware of that. Like you, I was just as shocked as I couldn’t believe it. Evidently, there had been discussions in the summer about his visit, but they ended up taking Lindelof instead.
Despite the fact that Van Dijk would stay with Southampton until the summer transfer deadline, Liverpool were impatient due to the Dutchman’s steady play on the south coast. The following January, Jurgen Klopp’s team spent £85 million, a record for a defender at the time, and they haven’t looked back.
To be fair, Lindelof has contributed significantly to United over the past eight seasons—he has made 246 appearances in all competitions. However, supporters might be pardoned for imagining what might have been.
