Van Dijk’s not joining exodus
MANCHESTER CITY and Liverpool target Virgil van Dijk will not leave Southampton in the summer, according to chairman Ralph Krueger.
The Dutch defender, 25, is wanted by a host of Europe’s top clubs with Paris SaintGermain also interested.
Krueger said: “He is our team captain and we don’t see him anywhere than in red and white stripes.
“Virgil is very committed to us for a long time and we don’t see anything but that in our future. We are just out of the January window and striving to keep this group together and build. ”
Krueger has also ruled out a repeat of Southampton’s annual summer fire-sale, which has seen Sadio Mane, Adam Lallana and Victor Wanyama depart. Canadian Krueger said: “We don’t want to do what we did in the last three summers. We’d like to move away from that and we feel confident this summer will be a lot quieter in Southampton and we can keep the core of this team for a few years.
“That is going to be important when you see how excellent the group is right now and how exciting the football is. The game we are playing is a pleasure to watch.” REPORTS left Sadio Mane in a heap inside the first few seconds – and Simon Mignolet forced into two early saves. Jurgen Klopp’s men had not been in action for 16 days and used that time for a training camp in La Manga during which they had been putting in double shifts at training. And while they missed their influential captain Jordan Henderson with a foot injury, it looked as if they had either overdone it or underdone it in Spain, producing a thoroughly listless first-half display.
Just before the half hour mark, they paid when Vardy raced on to a lovely through ball from Marc Albrighton and hammered the ball past Mignolet. It was Vardy’s second in a week following his rescue goal against Sevilla which kept Leicester in the hunt for a Champions League quarterfinal place but a first in the