It has been revealed that Saints act of reporting Liverpool to the Premier League comes after months of Virgil Van Dijk's agent attempting to sell his client to the highest bidder.

In modern football it would be very naive that the rules are adhered to to the letter, although a player or his agent should not speak to a club until it has been sanctioned by the selling club, the reality is that it is hard to monitor and there are constant breaches, indeed few transfers go through without some form of pre agreement between an agent and the buying club before the approach is made to the selling club.

However it is accepted that this contract can happen as long as the talks are fairly informal and not a lot more than finding out what the players wage demands would be and whether he would be interested in a move.

But the situation that has taken place between Liverpool and Virgil Van Dijk have apparently grossly overstepped the mark, even in today's game where the big clubs try to ride rough shod over the smaller ones, who in their opinion should be grateful that they are allowed to feed at the same trough as the big boys and doff their caps and say nothing when the "lords of the manor" decide to claim their conjugal rights.

Yahoo sports has revealed the extent of the underhand dealings that have been going on to persuade Virgil Van Dijk to leave Southampton and that the situation has not just happened but has been going on for several months to the extent that Saints eventually could ignore it no longer.

Yahoo claim that the players agent is the main instigator, but Liverpool and other clubs were happy to breach the rules.

Yahoo claim that Van Dijk:

Staged one-on-one talks with Liverpool and Klopp
Received video messages detailing how he would be used in the Reds team
Had Already finalised personal terms with Liverpool
Has now ‘kicked up a fuss’ in a bid to be sold by Southampton, even though he still has five years left on his current contact with the club.

They also say that Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool have been in talks over a deal to sign van Dijk for several months, with sources close to Southampton telling Yahoo that the agent at the centre of the deal is eager to force through a move to Anfield as that will secure him the biggest personal pay-off.

Van Dijk joined his current agent in December 2016 as was reported on this site when he joined the Wasserman group, who are headed up by Rob Jansen who Saints fans will remember was closely linked with Everton and then persuaded Ronald Koeman to leave his then agent to join him at the Wasserman group only a few weeks before Koeman finally said yes to the Toffee's after turning down earlier advances.

Although Liverpool have now apparently backed off as they are frightened that the Premier League will impose transfer sanctions with this being far from their first offence, that Chelsea and Manchester City remain keen, but that Saints are now determined to hold on to Van Dijk unless they receive "Silly money" even though they may have a player on his hands that is far from happy.

A source said to be close to Saints told Yahoo.

“The club had to take a stand this week as we have been aware of what has been going on for months and it has gone too far,” the source told us.

“Southampton have told the player that we don’t want to sell him this summer, but he thought he could kick up a big enough fuss that he would be sold for £50m."

“That is never happening and by holding talks with the player, sending him video clips of how he will fit into their team and doing this all without the permission of Southampton, there is no way he will be sold to Liverpool at this stage."

“Of course, every player has a price and if £100m or something close is put on the table, then it will be considered, but Southampton do not need to sell van Dijk this summer.”

Van Dijk has remained silent on the subject although reports have said that he altered the details on his twitter account to remove a picture of him in a Saints shirt to replace it with one of him in Holland kit and removed mention of Saints in his bio, although this has since been restored.

Saints now really need to make a stand and have already taken the first steps, certainly those who are not members of the so called big six will be glad to see Saints standing up for their rights and will hope that the Premier League will start to get tough on situations like this rather than just brush it under the carpet.

Photo: Action Images

NYC_Saint added 03:19 - Jun 10 Players often have social media delegates and I hope the change to his account was instructed by his agent and then reversed by VVD. Agents are just like everyone else and are trying to maximize their personal remuneration with the opportunities at hand. Whether or not we keep Virgil (and all the smokescreen alegations that will follow if we don't) I am proud of the club for sticking up for themselves. I imagine/hope that all the nefarious agents that likely see successful saints players as a quick pay day will be less convicted going forward and hopefully we'll hold onto our better players a bit longer going forward. My only wish now is we would sort out the manager situation asap - as other have pointed out its ridiculous that if CP is deemed not good enough that he needs to be replaced but is kept there just in case...

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mattthelegend added 08:17 - Jun 10 According to Yahoo we are in advanced talks to find a replacement for Puel. Regarding LFC I want us to pursue this further a half arsed patronising apology is not enough, a stand needs to be made against their total arrogance. Come on Saints make them regret this!!!!
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highfield49 added 10:10 - Jun 10 Ah yes, the football agent, if ever there was a case for regulation this seedy bunch of cowboys fits the bill. Why are these parasites allowed to make themselves multi millionaires by unsettling players and riding roughshod over all aspects of honesty and integrity? Capping their earnings to a flat fee and taking away their licence to operate for any breach of the regulations would be a step in the right direction.

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 12:27 - Jun 10 The biggest thing to come out of this is that Van Dyke wants to leave. For some reason I thought he was quite happy at Saints and content to stay and keep improving for a while. Really disappointing. They'll try thier best to keep him this summer but he might go down the route of refusing to play etc. I thought he was better than that.
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GeordieSaint added 13:26 - Jun 10 Hopefully this will play out in the same way as the schneiderlin transfer and to lesser extent the wanyama and mane deals. Club gives the player a gentleman's agreement that if he gives his best and the correct fee is forthcoming he will be allowed to move next summer, we get another season out of him and an even bigger fee next year. I really think if we can keep him for another year and sign another top centre back and a creative midfielder we would have a very competitive squad.

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bstokesaint added 22:41 - Jun 10 As Reedy says for me. Feel let down. Always held VVD in higher regard than this.
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PezzaSaint added 08:55 - Jun 11 For me two things here, 1) our transfer dealings in recent seasons have made us a soft target for agents and so it is no surprise that VVD's agent has behaved in this way and 2) if we don't need to sell VVD then surely someone should have been talking to him well before his head has apparently been turned. Liverhampton have shown how unprofessional they really are.
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Lazz added 10:03 - Jun 11 Here we go again it's becoming a joke Any report linking Liverpool to a Southampton player now undoubtedly triggers a grimace from Reds fans. The bad blood surrounding the Virgil van Dijk calamity has seemingly failed to stop Liverpool from trying to keep up their trend of turning to St Mary’s for new signings with yet another Saints star having been linked to an Anfield move. That said, there is a good chance whoever fed the latest rumour is sitting back, laughing at the resulting outbursts and feeling pretty good about taking full advantage of what the transfer market has become. After apologising for their pursuit of Van Dijk and subsequently ending all interest in the defender, Liverpool are now targeting Dušan Tadić, according to the Sunday Times. What makes the story even more surprising is the fact it has come from a notably reliable source. Tadić’s contract supposedly has a release clause of around £13m, thereby admittedly making the playmaker a highly-talented and affordable option. Supporters will inevitably agree, though, that Liverpool need to be competing for players of a much higher standard and calibre this summer. It has also been suggested that the winger would be keen on the move with the prospect of Champions League football believed to be a key attraction. The 28-year-old represents a relatively cheap opportunity to bolster the team’s strength in depth in attacking areas ahead of a busy 2017/2018 schedule.

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