Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk will not be moving to Liverpool but will Patrick Roberts swap Manchester City for Celtic?
Liverpool fans would have been hoping of waking up on Thursday morning with a world record £60 million deal for Southampton centre-back Virgil van Dijk on the verge of completion.
Instead, The Reds’ search for a top class defender looks set to go on with Liverpool dropping their interest in the Dutch international after The Saints accused them of illegally approaching their star man, the BBC reports.
And while this clearly is no help to Liverpool’s hopes of improving on their fourth placed finish last season, it also has major repercussions for Celtic.
After all, the Scottish champions inserted a 10 per cent sell-on clause in the deal which took Van Dijk to St Mary’s two summers ago. And you won’t need a masters in mathematics to work out that the former Groningen starlet putting pen to paper at Anfield would have earned Celtic a cool £6 million.
According to The Evening Times, that substantial windfall could have been the boost Celtic needed to up the ante in their pursuit of Patrick Roberts this summer.
And winger, who enjoyed an excellent 18 month loan spell at Parkhead, returned to Manchester City at the end of the season but his future at the Etihad is up in the air.
Manager Brendan Rodgers has made no secret of his desire to bring Roberts back above the border with Celtic making an initial bid of £5 million. However, with City paying Fulham £12 million for his signature just two years ago, they understandably want to recoup as much of their outlay as possible.
The money earned from Van Dijk’s bank-busting deal could have ensured Roberts would become Celtic’s record signing, The Evening Times add.
And they may be hard pushed to fund a move out of their own pocket.
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