‘Tis the season to come out with absolutely ludicrous statements.
Neil Warnock has provided us with the hottest of hot takes on Virgil van Dijk’s £75 million move to Liverpool.
On Wednesday, both Southampton and Liverpool confirmed the deal for the centre-half, which makes van Dijk the most expensive defender in history.
While most of the arguments around the transfer were based on the huge fee, valid points were raised on the question marks over van Dijk’s attitude and the fact that it can be perceived to be something of a desperation move from Jurgen Klopp to turn out his pockets in order to try to solve his defensive woes.
This is the cost for Liverpool to get real https://t.co/Tt5hRzTUvu
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) December 28, 2017
And as supporters of various sides debated back and forth on the move, Warnock decided to give us the show-stopping opinion on the deal.
The Cardiff City boss has remarkably claimed that his top centre-back Sol Bamba, who was released by Leeds by mutual consent last year, is a better defender than van Dijk.
“I think Van Dijk has got better attributes on the ball than Sol Bamba but I don’t think he is a better defender,” Warnock said, via Sky Sports.
“I think Sol Bamba is slightly better than Van Dijk defensive-wise. I think Van Dijk has got more confidence on the ball and looks easier on the eye, but I don’t think he is better defensively.”
So according to Warnock, Liverpool have signed themselves a fantastic ball-playing defender but, if reliability at the back was what Klopp was after, he should have brought in a Bamba.
Warnock also revealed that he tried to sign van Dijk when he was in charge of Crystal Palace and could have gotten him at a bargain, only to be turned off the pursuit by a scout.
“At centre-half I was looking at Van Dijk. I suggested we buy him for £6 million at the time and the chief scout said he wasn’t quick enough and didn’t see him stepping up [from the Scottish league] to the level we were looking for,” Warnock added.
“I hope he’s watching this morning that chief scout, £75 millio!
“You’ve got to be lucky with transfers when you’re a manager, you’ve got to hope that when you want a player you can actually go and get him rather than go through all the rigmarole but it made me smile in the morning when I saw that.”
