MANCHESTER CITY decided against signing Virgil van Dijk two-and-a-half years before he joined Liverpool, Ronny Deila has revealed.
The former Celtic boss recommended the Citizens sign van Dijk after he decided to leave Parkhead in the summer of 2015.
Van Dijk was snapped up by Southampton after starring in ScotlandCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Having asked for a character reference of the centre-back’s performances in Europe that season, Deila was unable to provide an honest positive review.
Deila told Si Ferry’s Open Goal podcast: “Did I get in touch with City? Yes.
“I said you have to take him. They said, ‘Okay, tell me the best European game he has played and we will watch it’.
“I couldn’t tell them what game that was because he hadn’t had any real good European games.
“He was really dominant in Scotland but he got sent off against Inter away.
“That was a big test. I think if he had played fantastically in that game, he would have been bought.
I think van Dijk was good, but he didn’t have that one really, really good game in Europe.”
Ronny Deila
“I think the big clubs think Scottish football is too low level and they don’t want to take a chance on a player for that kind of money.
“In Europe, then you can show how good you are. I think van Dijk was good, but he didn’t have that one really, really good game in Europe.”
In his two seasons at Celtic, Deila largely struggled in Europe and failed to reach the 2014/15 Champions League group stage after losing to Maribor.
The Glasgow side then conceded 11 goals in the Europa League group stage before a 4-3 aggregate loss to Inter Milan in the first knockout round – which featured a van Dijk red card just 36 minutes into the second leg.
Nonetheless he had convinced Southampton to spend £13million on his services, a fee similar to what City would have paid should they have rated the Dutchman highly enough.
Midway through his third season at St Mary’s, he became the world’s most expensive defender in moving to Liverpool for £75m.
And van Dijk has gone from strength to strength at Anfield, coming second in the 2019 Ballon d’Or after winning the Champions League – with a Premier League title surely on the way too.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
