RONNY DEILA will tell Southampton that he wasn’t aware of a half price transfer window sale at Celtic Park. The reports of an imminent bid of £7million for Virgil van Dijk is around half of the price Celtic would expect to achieve for any sale, should the club fail to reach the Champions League group stages.
Perhaps Southampton believe that having shopped successfully at Parkhead in previous seasons, securing the signatures of Victor Wanyama and Fraser Forster, they are entitled to a loyalty discount – buy two get the next one half price!
Ronald Koeman’s side have been linked with a move for the classy Dutch defender ahead of Celtic’s important Euro qualifier tonight with a host of other English sides, including Everton, Manchester United and Arsenal all apparently monitoring the situation.
Ronny Deila however has stated that there have been no bids for the player who cost the Hoops £2.6million when they signed him from Groningen two years ago.It has been claimed the south coast outfit, who have spent a joint £22million in landing Wanyama and Forster from the Scottish Champions over the past two years, are preparing to offer almost three times what the SPFL champions paid for the centre-half.
Many in the Celtic support believe that Van Dijk is even better than these two who have done exceptionally well on the south coast.
Deila yesterday reacted by insisting the 23-year-old is an integral part of his team as the club attempt to reach the Champions League group phase.The Norwegian said: “It is the same thing I say all the time. We don’t need to sell him, we want to have him here. Virgil is very focused, happy and really wants to play Champions League with Celtic.
“Seven million pounds? You think we would say yes to that? They haven’t bid. He is a top international player and everyone knows that.
“We want to reach the Champions League. We want to make this big club be successful, we need the best players and he is one of them.”
Van Dijk still has two years of his current contract to run.
