Van Dijk transferred from Southampton to Liverpool in January 2018 at a price that set the record for the defender's transfer fee, becoming one of the most far-reaching transfers in Premier League history. Seven years later, Martin Semens, a former Southampton executive who was in charge of the deal, admitted in a recent interview with British media talksport that it is embarrassing to think back on this transfer.

Semens said that Liverpool's behavior angered Southampton at the time, but the result of force staying in Van Dijk was counterproductive: "Van Dijk is a very important player to us, so we took a different attitude towards him. We told him 'you can't go', but it didn't work well, and we didn't make him change his mind. In my opinion, Van Dijk is very good. Even if he only gave 75% of his condition training and game, he is still the best player in the team and even the league."

"He didn't cause any trouble for us, never said a bad word to anyone, but he really wanted to leave, and forced staying in the players was meaningless to us. But we still left him until January, which was the atmosphere and The environment is not good. It must be clarified that Van Dijk never said a bad word to anyone. At that time, we thought that if he stayed, we could get a higher transfer fee. He was seriously injured and missed for six to nine months. We felt that he owed us. It was embarrassing to think about it in retrospect. In addition, we didn’t like the way we contacted Liverpool, and perhaps out of moral considerations, Van Dijk didn’t know about us after meeting Klopp in private. But he still showed good performance and attitude during his time at Southampton, and we eventually sold him at a very ideal price. "

Speaking of Liverpool new player Leoni, who just seriously injured, it was Semens who brought him from Sampdoria to Parma last year. Semens said that Leoni would be the most suitable successor for Van Dijk: "I think he is the best young central defender in Italy and even Europe. When he started his career at the age of 17, we told him that when the right time comes, he would leave. The same is true for the Japanese goalkeeper Aiyan Suzuki, who we signed for Parma. There are rumors that Manchester United tried to sign him, and I can semi-confirm the news."

"Although the outside world believes that Leoni may stay for another year in the end, he is really outstanding, which once again highlights Liverpool's ability to discover geniuses. However, I had left Parma at that time. Several Premier League clubs asked me about his situation. I told them my opinion, saying that this kid would be as good as Van Dijk, but they did not follow up afterwards, and Liverpool never contacted me."