Pundit Dave McKinnon claims Brendon Rodgers wanted to sign Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk when he was at Liverpool back in 2015.
Van Dijk was signed by Neil Lennon but the defender to rose to prominence during Rony Deila Era. The Norwegian manager helped Celtics to win second 9-in-a-row in their history.
The cente-back then joined Southampton for £13 million on 2015. However Rodger admitted that he want to sign Van Dijk when he was at Liverpool according to McKinnon.
Pundit discussed the situation back then and said :-
“Let me tell you a story of what Brendan said to me when Celtic were playing against Hamilton. I would talk to him about football and told him that I was down in England and he said to me, ‘I made a mistake when I was at Liverpool.
“Because my scout told me [Virgil] van Dijk was a top, top player. But my interpretation of Scotland at that time was they didn’t really have to exert themselves and I didn’t think he’d be able to play 90 minutes all the time at a certain level because he was playing in Scotland. But I’ve changed my attitude now.
“And as you know I think he could have got him for maybe £8-9 million and what did they pay eventually? £70m? So I think that was a mistake but I think it was a big lesson for him.”
Little did Liverpool knew as in 2017, Reds signed Van Dijk for £75 million from Southampton. The rest is history as the centre-back won every possible trophy under Jurgen Klopp.
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