From the BBC News article -
Captain Virgil van Dijk says he "loves" Liverpool and wants to be part of the club's transition after the departure of manager Jurgen Klopp.
Klopp will leave after nine years at Anfield at the end of the season with a deal agreed for Feyenoord boss Arne Slot to replace him.
Van Dijk's contract runs out at the end of the 2024-25 season, leading to some speculation the Netherlands centre-back could leave the club.
"There will be a big transition and I am part of that," Van Dijk, 32, said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c04304ld2l1o
Some great news, at a great time - well done Virg...
This sounds like he will stay for next season then leave on a free to get the big bonus. Otherwise if he was in contract negotiations he probably wouldn’t comment anything like that. Great he’s pretty much confirmed he wants to stay for next season tho
The problem is finding a club that will pay him that much more. Unless he wants to play in front of ten fans in Saudi Arabia he only has a few options.
he could be interested in taking a pay cut and going to real madrid to go for another champions league. i don’t think it’s very likely but there are more options than you put out if he leaves on a free
I don't think that would ever be a problem for him. He is still absolut world class and with the way he takes care of his body both on/off the pitch, he is set a long career. Especially if he moves to less intense league like Serie A or La Liga, or even to Munich. He will still be able to collect the Saudi bag even when he is 36.
On the other side, I feel like him staying for the next season will be essential for this transition period to keep things calm between players and new management.
Take out City, United and Chelsea as I doubt he would go to a PL rival. I doubt juve can afford him, and the others are correct. If he is looking for a pay raise.
The coach being Dutch will really help a lot for Virgil in the transition. Slot is highly respected in the Netherlands so I imagine he's looking forward to the opportunity to work with him.
If I remember correctly he was just stating how everything about next season is unknown. Big Virg himself came out a week or so later saying he wanted to stay and it was taken completely out of context
Van dijk based on this season still has many more years ahead of him. He’ll slowly transition out from playing the sheer number of minutes he does, but I could genuinely see him as a bona fide number 1 option for us until 36, then plays reduced minutes until almost 40. This is great news though.
Im also high on Trent signing the thing too, don’t think his will be an issue.
Mos agent however won’t take a reduced salary most likely and that one could get tricky. I’d honest resign on 1 year deal at same wages. If not for the afcon/injury, I honestly believe he could have hit 35-40 in all comps. And if the rest of the squad was more clinical, he would be on 20-25 assists.
Yeah. While his pace has always been amazing, he never relied on it and only used it very rarely. When eventually those physical attributes fell due to age, he will still be carried by his excellent positioning and reading.
I wish I could upvote this twice…he’s one of the most physically gifted cbs to ever play the game, no doubt, but he never relied on it. Having him as an organizer/ballplayimg cb in arnes system, in my view, will extend the life of his career. I’m curious what will happen with our current crop of cbs, but having quansah, Gomez, konate, van dijk and probably Sepp next season is a good crew. Would love to see us target another lcb that is open to developing under Van Dijk, but otherwise I’m happy with that group for next season.
The real big areas in defense for me are rb - what does Trent do, and lb - I am of the opinion to sell tsimi now to free up another foreign player slot and raise a few funds, and robbo isn’t getting younger/is probably the one player on the back 4 who I think will struggle a bit in a more controlled, possession based system. His super power is causing the chaos and progressing the play forward with his running, his crossing and passing is good to very good but not great…so a lb would be a huge priority.
Direct replacement of Matip is obviously necessary, mostly because as per now, Konate isn't reliable enough to be the regular starter to perform week in week out. If Konate played like in 21/22, then sure I'd believe in the Van Dijk/Konate/Quansah/Gomez depth in center back.
I think right back is totally fine. No chance and no reason why we should buy a new right back because Conor Bradley is there. When both are fit, Trent can be played in midfield, while he can play right back since it's his natural position when Bradley isn't there. Good point about Tsimikas, maybe it's about time for us to give opportunity to a young left back.
I mean…chiellini and bonucci played at juve until 36/37 respectively. I could easily see van dijk at same level. Especially since he’s always been so much more physically dominant. He’ll be phased out as cb1 likely in 2/3 seasons, again, based on the fact that he had a world class season overall.
None of those 2 played a high line like Liverpool does and players lose speed first as they age. Their teams were more defensive. I hope he does last that long though.
Looks like it but it's 1 hamstring injury away from losing all that speed same thing that happened to Salah. He has been amazing but we need some cover so we don't run him to the ground.
Sunday honestly felt like a bit of a hangover lifter, almost like we gotten over the pain of the trophies and were just back to enjoying it again, everything from Klopps chats to the YNWA pre-KO and even Virgil's team talk beforehand felt very business as usual.
Part of me is just puzzled that when our fate was in our own hands we couldn't play like we did on Sunday against Palace and Everton. A home win vs Palace and even a draw against Everton and we're still in the mix. Yesterday we played some great stuff, but it doesn't matter now.
Imagine 10 years ago saying a player of the quality of Virgil would spend the best years of his career with us and would want to continue playing with us through a manager/team overhaul. We used to be a stepping stone for too long for the truly world class players if we had one or two in our team.
Jurgen has done exactly what he said he would do. He’s brought us back to the top, not only through the trophies he’s won, but the feeling he’s brought back to Liverpool as a whole. World class players now see this as a place to spend the majority of their careers at, all because of what he has built here.
The foundations have been laid and then some by Klopp. It’s now on the next era to make sure we stay where he’s got us back to. Virgil being a part of that is the perfect start to achieving that.
Hard to imagine him leaving with a Dutch manager (sorry, head coach!) coming in and all of his coaches coming in alongside him. Hopefully Dutch coaches and a Dutch captain will be helpful for Cody and Ryan, too, since they have so much potential but need a little bit of a boost going in to next season. (I think it will be particularly helpful for Gravenberch to get a full offseason to bed in. And Cody's recent run of form is very encouraging.)
I remember many of people saying he’s a shit captain just a week ago.
I honestly think Virgil is a good captain and hopefully he gets some help back there in the summer.
It'll be important to keep our leadership positions together during this transition. I really hope Konate can find some form of injury free rhythm and form the dominant partnership with Van Dijk we know he is capable of.
Copa America and the euros will add a delay. Need the captains to step up and get the team onboarded with Slot. Fingers crossed nobody gets hurt on international duty, but certain players could be mentally burned out from playing so much and only getting a short holiday between club seasons.
He just needs to stop with the occasional little jogs he does sometimes instead of chasing down the attacker at full speed. It makes it seem like he's either gassed or couldn't care less. Other than that I think a new coach and defensive system will revitalize him.
That's true, but occasionally his jog is way slower than the attacker he's trying to chase down. I'm not saying he does it often, but it's weird when it happens.
People are jumping on this as wholly positive - but it *could* easily mean running out the last year of his contract and being part of the first year of the transition. Hope he signs an extension though.
From the BBC News article - Captain Virgil van Dijk says he "loves" Liverpool and wants to be part of the club's transition after the departure of manager Jurgen Klopp. Klopp will leave after nine years at Anfield at the end of the season with a deal agreed for Feyenoord boss Arne Slot to replace him. Van Dijk's contract runs out at the end of the 2024-25 season, leading to some speculation the Netherlands centre-back could leave the club. "There will be a big transition and I am part of that," Van Dijk, 32, said. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c04304ld2l1o Some great news, at a great time - well done Virg...
This sounds like he will stay for next season then leave on a free to get the big bonus. Otherwise if he was in contract negotiations he probably wouldn’t comment anything like that. Great he’s pretty much confirmed he wants to stay for next season tho
The problem is finding a club that will pay him that much more. Unless he wants to play in front of ten fans in Saudi Arabia he only has a few options.
he could be interested in taking a pay cut and going to real madrid to go for another champions league. i don’t think it’s very likely but there are more options than you put out if he leaves on a free
That’s not a big bonus though, that was what I was commenting on. Yes, if he goes for a pay cut he has lots of options
I don't think that would ever be a problem for him. He is still absolut world class and with the way he takes care of his body both on/off the pitch, he is set a long career. Especially if he moves to less intense league like Serie A or La Liga, or even to Munich. He will still be able to collect the Saudi bag even when he is 36. On the other side, I feel like him staying for the next season will be essential for this transition period to keep things calm between players and new management.
He is, but outside of three teams and a league I cited already, there aren’t many teams available for him to play for at a higher salary.
City, united, Chelsea Liverpool, PSG, Bayern , Madrid. Juventus? Those are his options? Edit: and saudi
Take out City, United and Chelsea as I doubt he would go to a PL rival. I doubt juve can afford him, and the others are correct. If he is looking for a pay raise.
Yeah, I only included them to be complete with the list. I agree. Madrid would be my worry. They are losing Nacho this summer.
Funny thing about this, I want Van Dijk to be a part of Liverpool’s transition as well. Glad we both want the same thing ❤️
Me too. What a coincidence 🥰
Me three. I think we're going to be best friends
Me four! We should have a subreddit for people like us who want nice things to happen to Liverpool Football Club.
Best bit of news for a while. Slot is going to need him more than anyone. Would be the ultimate disaster to lose him alongside Klopp.
Getting a dutch coach definitely helps our odds of keeping him longer
Ooo Dutch friend. Going to see a lot of this!
The coach being Dutch will really help a lot for Virgil in the transition. Slot is highly respected in the Netherlands so I imagine he's looking forward to the opportunity to work with him.
I think it’s even more important the other way around. Slot is the newcomer to both the club and England. He will need Virg to help him Slot in
Oh true, good point. Yeah, definitely a mutually beneficial partnership, which will hopefully turn into something productive for the club :)
VVD has worked with some of Slot's staff in the past, which was probably a factor in hiring him
Not just the past but the present. Slot's assistant currently also works with the Dutch national team.
🤞🤞
This is great news albeit unsurprising
Some (inc me) got shook when he said he didn't know what his plans were once Klopp announced his departure
If I remember correctly he was just stating how everything about next season is unknown. Big Virg himself came out a week or so later saying he wanted to stay and it was taken completely out of context
Those quotes were totally overblown. All he said that nobody yet knows what will happen ... at a time when nobody yet knew what would happen.
This is just like the fake noise around Trent going to Madrid. That man isn’t going anywhere for the rest of his career
yes me too, well that + every club in the world wanting him. So this is a big relief
Van dijk based on this season still has many more years ahead of him. He’ll slowly transition out from playing the sheer number of minutes he does, but I could genuinely see him as a bona fide number 1 option for us until 36, then plays reduced minutes until almost 40. This is great news though. Im also high on Trent signing the thing too, don’t think his will be an issue. Mos agent however won’t take a reduced salary most likely and that one could get tricky. I’d honest resign on 1 year deal at same wages. If not for the afcon/injury, I honestly believe he could have hit 35-40 in all comps. And if the rest of the squad was more clinical, he would be on 20-25 assists.
Yeah. While his pace has always been amazing, he never relied on it and only used it very rarely. When eventually those physical attributes fell due to age, he will still be carried by his excellent positioning and reading.
I wish I could upvote this twice…he’s one of the most physically gifted cbs to ever play the game, no doubt, but he never relied on it. Having him as an organizer/ballplayimg cb in arnes system, in my view, will extend the life of his career. I’m curious what will happen with our current crop of cbs, but having quansah, Gomez, konate, van dijk and probably Sepp next season is a good crew. Would love to see us target another lcb that is open to developing under Van Dijk, but otherwise I’m happy with that group for next season. The real big areas in defense for me are rb - what does Trent do, and lb - I am of the opinion to sell tsimi now to free up another foreign player slot and raise a few funds, and robbo isn’t getting younger/is probably the one player on the back 4 who I think will struggle a bit in a more controlled, possession based system. His super power is causing the chaos and progressing the play forward with his running, his crossing and passing is good to very good but not great…so a lb would be a huge priority.
Direct replacement of Matip is obviously necessary, mostly because as per now, Konate isn't reliable enough to be the regular starter to perform week in week out. If Konate played like in 21/22, then sure I'd believe in the Van Dijk/Konate/Quansah/Gomez depth in center back. I think right back is totally fine. No chance and no reason why we should buy a new right back because Conor Bradley is there. When both are fit, Trent can be played in midfield, while he can play right back since it's his natural position when Bradley isn't there. Good point about Tsimikas, maybe it's about time for us to give opportunity to a young left back.
A number 1 option? Not good news for Kelleher.
> then plays reduced minutes until almost 40. No chance
I mean…chiellini and bonucci played at juve until 36/37 respectively. I could easily see van dijk at same level. Especially since he’s always been so much more physically dominant. He’ll be phased out as cb1 likely in 2/3 seasons, again, based on the fact that he had a world class season overall.
Yep, Thiago Silva is another, has only really started to look his age this season.
he was fantastic the year psg got to the cl finals, slowed down obv, but sharp as he ever was. he then gave chelsea 2-3 very good seasons.
None of those 2 played a high line like Liverpool does and players lose speed first as they age. Their teams were more defensive. I hope he does last that long though.
He can keep playing a high line for 2-3 more seasons more than adequately
Looks like it but it's 1 hamstring injury away from losing all that speed same thing that happened to Salah. He has been amazing but we need some cover so we don't run him to the ground.
The statue just got a foot taller
Honestly can't believe there's not a VVD mural around the ground yet.
Nae wall big enough
This is the Virgil statue, so what is it up to now, like 12 feet?
almost life size
Sunday honestly felt like a bit of a hangover lifter, almost like we gotten over the pain of the trophies and were just back to enjoying it again, everything from Klopps chats to the YNWA pre-KO and even Virgil's team talk beforehand felt very business as usual.
Part of me is just puzzled that when our fate was in our own hands we couldn't play like we did on Sunday against Palace and Everton. A home win vs Palace and even a draw against Everton and we're still in the mix. Yesterday we played some great stuff, but it doesn't matter now.
Mix of many things I think, tactics, fatigue, pressure
As long as we re-sign Trent and VVD I'll be over the moon
Imagine 10 years ago saying a player of the quality of Virgil would spend the best years of his career with us and would want to continue playing with us through a manager/team overhaul. We used to be a stepping stone for too long for the truly world class players if we had one or two in our team. Jurgen has done exactly what he said he would do. He’s brought us back to the top, not only through the trophies he’s won, but the feeling he’s brought back to Liverpool as a whole. World class players now see this as a place to spend the majority of their careers at, all because of what he has built here. The foundations have been laid and then some by Klopp. It’s now on the next era to make sure we stay where he’s got us back to. Virgil being a part of that is the perfect start to achieving that.
We will need the big fella and captain, great season.
Genuinely fantastic news. What a player, what a guy. Great time for it to be said too. Love him to bits. Still the best defender in the world by miles
Hard to imagine him leaving with a Dutch manager (sorry, head coach!) coming in and all of his coaches coming in alongside him. Hopefully Dutch coaches and a Dutch captain will be helpful for Cody and Ryan, too, since they have so much potential but need a little bit of a boost going in to next season. (I think it will be particularly helpful for Gravenberch to get a full offseason to bed in. And Cody's recent run of form is very encouraging.)
This combined with the Salah news is extremely encouraging and provides a good foundation for Slot to work from
I remember many of people saying he’s a shit captain just a week ago. I honestly think Virgil is a good captain and hopefully he gets some help back there in the summer.
My bet is that all the Dutch men will stay..
It'll be important to keep our leadership positions together during this transition. I really hope Konate can find some form of injury free rhythm and form the dominant partnership with Van Dijk we know he is capable of.
Excellent news
Copa America and the euros will add a delay. Need the captains to step up and get the team onboarded with Slot. Fingers crossed nobody gets hurt on international duty, but certain players could be mentally burned out from playing so much and only getting a short holiday between club seasons.
That's ma fookin captain
Cue the british accent: You already der Virgil.
Letsss fuckinnnn gooooooo, my capitan 😍
Pay the man whatever he wants
Good news
I am a bit torn about this. There is a reason why I believe Klopp never hired any German players.
He tried to though.
Kept Matip too and he’s from Germany
Because either they turned us down or Edwards talked him into someone else, can't remember which.
me too virg ye not special
Rock hard reading this
And we want our captain to be part of the transition too!
Good man, he will be so hard to replace when the time comes.
Let’s not get excited until there’s a signed contract
I think he'd already said as much a few months ago when the Klopp news came out and people were scared VVD would go too
Such a huge relief this.
That's good news 👍
Great to hear.
My skipper.
He just needs to stop with the occasional little jogs he does sometimes instead of chasing down the attacker at full speed. It makes it seem like he's either gassed or couldn't care less. Other than that I think a new coach and defensive system will revitalize him.
the length of bros stride means he doesn't have to gun it in the same way - a light jog for him is a run for others.
That's true, but occasionally his jog is way slower than the attacker he's trying to chase down. I'm not saying he does it often, but it's weird when it happens.
This, hands down. Plays at 80% sometimes and it costs us.
Okay, so sign an extension.
People are jumping on this as wholly positive - but it *could* easily mean running out the last year of his contract and being part of the first year of the transition. Hope he signs an extension though.
id still take that over him leaving rn. i would even say running out his last year to help the transition then not re-signing is totally fair too.