Celtic crashed out of the Champions League in Sweden tonight going down to a 2-0 defeat and losing 4-3 on aggregate, was this Virgil Van Dijk's last game for the club.

It seems like Saints have been chasing Virgil Van Dijk since last season ended and Celtic have always made it very clear that they were not going to let the central defender go until the knew their fate in the Champions League.

Now they know that fate and they are out of the Champions League and into the Europa League group stage draw and the big question is whether Virgil Van Dijk is finally going to move to the Premier League and Southampton in particular.

Certainly Celtic may now need the money with their income substantially reduced by going out of the Champions League and the £10 million or so they will get from the sale of the Dutch defender could be very much needed.

Fro a Saints perspective Ronald Koeman has always appeared very relaxed about the situation almost as if a deal has been agreed and as rumoured all that has delayed it has been the fate of where Celtic will be playing in Europe.

Saints fans too have been patient and with the transfer window closing after the weekend they will want to see Van Dijk a Southampton player sooner than later with him preferably signed before the weekend and able to be in the squad for the visit of Norwich City on Sunday

Photo: Action Images

Zambucco added 22:33 - Aug 25 He'll be flying in tomorrow, medical, contract, join the team, help us stuff Norwich!
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VancouverSaint added 22:35 - Aug 25 Yes, and Charlie Austin was not in the team for QPR tonight, who lost in LC. Double signing before the close??
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BUCK added 00:33 - Aug 26 He's always been a cert coming to saints whether they qualified or not
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IWOZTHERE added 10:42 - Aug 26 Don't tempt fate lads.... Remember the Alamo?-I mean Alderweireld ! As it happens I've always thought that there was an agreement otherwise that we would have had someone in by now. If there isn't, and we're left high and dry with only a few days left then the s*** will hit more than just the odd fan!
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SanMarco added 12:31 - Aug 26 I hope we are not seeing words like 'hijack', 'late', 'deal' and 'Everton' in the same sentence this week. Also Mopo might dictate a statement to Toby along the lines of "always wanted to play alongside..." and Brenda of course might simply think that if we want him he must have him. Can't see us signing Austin - we would surely have done that already.
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schatfield added 13:01 - Aug 26 with stone handing in a transfer request with everton now, they will be odds on fave to sign him, not us, unless we move really fast and get this transfer signed and sealed in next couple of days
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DPeps added 13:36 - Aug 26 Agree with schatfield. I really hope we sign him but Everton have been reportedly interested for a while and they be willing to offer more to Celtic and more wage. I reckon it'll go down to the wire
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DPeps added 13:38 - Aug 26 *may be willing
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SaintBrock added 15:03 - Aug 26 Had this been likely it would have happened long ago simply because of the Koeman pull. If the player wants to leave Celtic but is weighing up his options then not only is it unlikely he will choose us but why would we want him anyway? He's not exactly biting off Les' hand to be with Ron is he?
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darkangelv2 added 16:52 - Aug 26 He wants to play for Ron - he knows it will stand him in good stead with the Dutch national side when Koeman moves on. Why do you think he's not biting our Les' hand off Brock? It's Celtic who set the price, not VVD - he's already agreed personal terms etc. There's no such thing as visible 'progress' with player transfers. There's just rumours and then confirmation. VVD is the reason we haven't signed a Toby replacement yet. This deal was always happening.

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darkangelv2 added 16:54 - Aug 26 PS. Austin, no chance. The guy's only just started keeping his nose clean, so to speak.....
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ExiledSupporter added 21:43 - Aug 26 Was I the only person who thought that he performed fairly poorly last night, he seemed to have no particularly good positional sense, didn't seem that dominant in the air, didn't show a great deal of pace and actually looked rather uninterested throughout. OK Celtic were dire and seemed to have little tactical nous, nor much accuracy to their passing but I would have hoped that this would have made him stand out at least in terms of determination, assertiveness and leadership. Didn't see much here to impress, let's hope this was just an off night but worried about his resilience on this showing.

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