Virgil van Dijk’s private chat about Man Utd leaked by his former team-mate

While Virgil van Dijk has been a stalwart at Anfield since signing for Liverpool in 2018, his career could have taken a completely different turn had he signed for Manchester United instead

Virgil van Dijk may have had a completely different looking career had Manchester United not overlooked him in the summer of 2017.

The 33-year-old Dutchman started off at Groningen in 2011, spending two years with the side before being signed by Celtic in 2013. Southampton acquired his services two years later, before Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool lured the centre-half to Anfield in 2018, where he has remained ever since.

However, Van Dijk’s former team-mate, Charlie Austin, revealed that the hard-hitting defender’s career could have taken a far different path if the Red Devils hadn’t overlooked him the year before he arrived in the north west. Speaking to talkSPORT in 2021, Austin explained: “I remember the back end of his Southampton career, we were on the bench together at Chelsea away.

“I sat there I said, ‘Come on Virgil, what’s going on, surely Man United must’ve been in for you? Massive club in England, etc’. He said, ‘You know what Chaz, in the summer it was like between me or Lindelof and they signed Lindelof’. I was like, ‘You are joking!’ Nobody knows that, he told me that on the bench.

“I couldn’t believe it, I was just as gobsmacked as you. Obviously, there was talk in the summer he was going to go there then they’ve gone and taken Lindelof instead.” 

Rather than taking Van Dijk, United snapped up Victor Lindelof from Benfica in a £30.7million deal, before later splashing a hefty £80million on Harry Maguire in a bid to solidify their back line.

Liverpool paid the Saints £75million for Van Dijk’s signature in January 2018, and the rest, as they say, is history. The 6ft 5in centre-half has proven instrumental for the Reds over the years, bagging a Premier League and a Champions League trophy under Klopp, before continuing to impress under new boss Arne Slot.

Liverpool currently sit top of the league as they eye their second Premier League title since the inception of the set-up in 1992 – with a game in hand over second-place Arsenal courtesy of their postponed Merseyside derby in December through Storm Darragh. Slot’s side face fierce rivals in United this afternoon (Sunday, January 5), hoping to achieve a similar result from the reverse fixture at Old Trafford earlier in the season.

During that game, Luis Diaz scored a brace before Mohamed Salah sealed the deal in a 3-0 victory. United, meanwhile, are currently languishing in the lower half of the league table, with new boss Ruben Amorim failing to turn the tide since replacing Erik ten Hag in November. With just one win in their last five Premier League outings, United will hope to have their revenge on a neighbouring Liverpool when they travel to Anfield.

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