After a very long, protracted and sometimes quite ugly transfer saga, Virgil van Dijk moved from Southampton to Liverpool in January for £75 million, and in the process became the world’s most expensive defender.
Reds manager Jurgen Klopp, hailing the performance of the Dutchman in his side’s 2-0 win at Crystal Palace yesterday, said VVD has justified his price tag, and then some. Klopp then went on to say that no one even talks about Van Dijk’s transfer fee right now, invoking a colorful comparison to another commodity that his synonymous with rapid price inflation.
“Quality costs a specific price. With cars, it’s the case, and with players too. Nobody thinks about it now,” the German said of Van Dijk after the win over the Eagles in London.
“He’s a player in this market who is worth it, and maybe now people think he was too cheap! He loves playing with these boys, and that’s the most important thing.”
The German made the remarks a day after saying his club would never sanction a transfer buy as costly as Neymar, who Paris Saint-Germain broke the world record in order to acquire. Klopp said his club is more financially conservative than that, although many would probably beg to differ with that statement.
Liverpool were undoubtedly summer transfer window champions in 2018, as they spent £179 million on new players, and broke the world transfer fee record for a goalkeeper in doing so.
Klopp should be commended though for evolving his opinion on the transfer market along with the times. He’s said all the right things in adapting to a rapidly changing transfer market that sees player fees escalating at an egregious rate each transfer window.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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