SOUTHAMPTON defender Virgil van Dijk is worth a cool £50million.
And that’s what Liverpool should expect to pay for the impressive Dutchman, according to Saints’ legend Matt Le Tissier.
Ex-Celtic defender van Dijk once again showed his quality as Southampton beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates to bag an EFL Cup semi-final showdown with Liverpool.
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If Southampton do sell their Dutch master they will have to take into account a sell-on clause written into Van Dijk’s contract when he signed from Celtic for £13m just over a year ago.
At the end of last season he signed a six-year deal and Saints boss Claude Puel is desperate to ward off interest from both Liverpool and Everton.
Le Tissier spent his entire career with Southampton and has been hugely impressed by Van Dijk.
“From what I have seen this season, I’d suggest it would take between £40-50m to get Virgil van Dijk away from Southampton," he said.
“I would be very surprised if he was let go for anything less than that because he has signed a new long-term deal. Celtic will have a sell-on clause and rightly so. That’s good business by them.
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“If Van Dijk stayed for a couple of years I’d be absolutely delighted. But I doubt we’ll keep him for that long. I’m hoping we can at least keep him until the end of the season because then it doesn’t disrupt things too much. Hopefully, we don’t lose him in January.2
"Van Dijk is probably the best centre-back in the Premier League at the moment. He is as good as that. I have seen a lot of Southampton this season.
“At times, he looks like a man playing in a boy’s game. He really does. He had Romelu Lukaku in his pocket for the entire game Everton on Sunday. He is superb.
Sadio Mane moved to Anfield in a £30m summer move to become the fifth player to make the switch from Saints to Liverpool in just over two years and van Dijk could be the next.
Le Tissier joked: “What happens is that Liverpool pay us loads of money for players and then we take a bit of that money and give it to Celtic. It’s a nice little circle!
“So far, the arrangement has worked well. Liverpool have given us over £100 million over the last three seasons and they still couldn’t finish above us last season.”
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