21 Jan 2018 06:40:29
Ed001, out of interest, do you have an inside story to tell us about how we eventually got VVD over the line? Have we rebuilt our rep with soton? Or was paying over the odds the healer of old wounds!?

{Ed001's Note - more of the latter than the former, though we did mend a few bridges, it was more because he was so intent on joining us only that got the deal done than anything else. With him refusing to consider a move elsewhere, Saints were kind of stuck between hanging onto him and making a deal happen with us. Once we agreed to pay what they asked, rather than started trying to play silly buggers with the price, they were much happier about the whole thing.}


1.) 21 Jan 2018
21 Jan 2018 07:37:41
Ed, how legitimate was the interest from elsewhere? Citeh, for example, were thought to be another club keen on van Dijk.

{Ed001's Note - they were keen, as were Chelsea, but the price Saints asked put Chelsea off and Virgil's desire to join LFC put Pep off.}


2.) 21 Jan 2018
21 Jan 2018 08:11:23
Appreciated, thanks.

{Ed001's Note - welcome.}


3.) 21 Jan 2018
21 Jan 2018 09:15:37
Do you believe his desire to be with us could spark the extra effort to become more of a complete player and improve his weaknesses, I think he become a great if he can stay switched on at the back. He seems to be a mouth that we desperately needed, exited about him and Gomez moving forward.

{Ed001's Note - impossible to say, but I hope so.}


4.) 21 Jan 2018
21 Jan 2018 09:24:04
Cheers ed1.
Ed2 said in the summer that it'd be embarrassing for liverpool to go back to soton for vvd after our grovelling apology. Is any of that there? Also have the club now made the neccessary changes internally in terms of how we approach negotiations?

{Ed001's Note - we didn't go back to them, that was the point. VVD had made it plain what he wanted, so they decided to oblige him to get their house in order and basically gave us a price. Either we paid it or no deal. We agreed to pay, the only haggling was over payment terms etc.}


5.) 21 Jan 2018
21 Jan 2018 09:44:29
Cheers ed, always good to get a picture of what's going on!