Liverpool boosted as Southampton leave transfer target Virgil van Dijk out of pre-season tour squad

Van Dijk has told Southampton he wants to leave and there is now a belief on many sides that Liverpool is where the centre-half wants to go

Southampton have left their captain out of their pre-season squad (Getty)

Liverpool's hopes of signing Virgil van Dijk have been boosted by the news that Southampton have left their wantaway skipper out of their squad for the pre-season trip to France.

Van Dijk has told Southampton he wants to leave and there is now a belief on many sides that Liverpool is where the centre-half wants to go, although the Merseyside club are understandably treading carefully and not looking to push the situation, having previously been forced to apologise to Southampton over a complaint about illegal approaches and contritely stating that their interest in the player had ended.

The developments could well see both Manchester City and Chelsea enter the race for Van Dijk given their previous interest, although there may be something of a stand-off, since any concrete bid would allow Liverpool to come back in.

Southampton would demand upward of £65m for the player, although new manager Mauricio Pellegrino is still publicly hopeful of convincing him to stay.

“The boy said that he is not available to play because he wants to leave,” he said. “This is the decision. I had to say: ‘If you don’t want to be involved because you don’t feel OK then you have to train alone until this period of time happens.’

“My relationship with Virgil is excellent. I was clear with the boy, and I was talking from the first day with him. The club was clear. The club told me they will not sell Virgil. I translated the idea of the club to the player and for me it was easy because I had to manage the dynamic of the team.

“Now he is not involved with the team because psychologically he is not 100%. If you are not 100% with the team I need to work with the players who are 1,000% to defend Southampton. It’s easy for me.”

Full squad:

Fraser Forster, Stuart Taylor, Paulo Gazzaniga, Maya Yoshida, Florin Gardos, Jan Bednarek, Sam McQueen, Alfie Jones, Matt Targett, Ryan Bertrand, Jack Stephens, Will Wood, Jérémy Pied, Jordy Clasie, Steven Davis, Dušan Tadić, Oriol Romeu, James Ward-Prowse, Nathan Redmond, Sofiane Boufal, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Shane Long, Charlie Austin, Sam Gallagher, Manolo Gabbiadini.