Brendan gets late Christmas pressie
for the 26-year-old. What is clear, however, is Southampton have accepted that the classy centre-half will move in the next transfer window and Liverpool have always been the player’s preferred choice.
An expected move to Anfield in August collapsed amid suggestions Liverpool acted unethically in their chase of the Dutchman.
Van Dijk cost Celtic £2.6m when they signed him from Breda. He moved to Southampton for £12.m and when his next moves goes through, he will have made the Scottish champions almost £20m.
Rodgers is looking to strengthen in the window. Defender Marvin Compper has arrived and at least one more player, likely an attacker, will be added.
Celtic’s 3-0 win over Aberdeen put them eight points ahead of the Pittodrie side and despite his side dropping more points than they did in the whole of last sea- son, the manager is relaxed about his team.
Rodgers said: “I think we were 19 points in front going into the break last year. I am not going to cry if we’re not but if we get into a position where we have a double-digit lead then I think the players would deserve a huge amount of credit.”
And Rodgers played down the suggestion that his team had been ‘found out’ after their 4-0 loss at Hearts.
He said: “We have faced everything. When we lost to Hearts, it was because Hearts deserved to win the game. There was loads of stuff, the pitch was awful, but the thing was it was us.
“We weren’t very good on the day, either collectively or individually. But over the course of 71 games now, we have faced everything.
“Hearts weren’t the first team to have tried to press us. We’ve had it a number of times. That day, we just couldn’t find the solution.”