I mentioned yesterday that the stories regarding Virgil Van Dijk were in the main planted in the press by Liverpool's PR team and now it seems the club agree and have reported Liverpool to the Premier League.
After a meeting this morning of the club's board Saints have decided to report Liverpool to The Premier League regarding a possible illegal approach for Virgil Van Dijk, the Daily Echo has reported that Saints are "seething" at what they see as a raft of stories all emmenating from journalists with close connections to Liverpool FC all appearing at the same time on Monday afternoon in what was a concerted well drilled PR campaign aimed at not only undermining Manchester City's alleged bid but also at unsettling the player.
Most of the stories intimated that the main reason for Van Dijk wanting to join Liverpool was because of Jurgen Klopp's direct involvement in encouraging Van Dijk to choose joining Liverpool over any other club and Saints believe that this in itself constitutes an illegal approach.
The Echo further reports that this situation has had the opposite effect than the one that Liverpool intended, far from putting pressure on Saints to sell Van Dijk to the Merseyside club, it has hardened their resolve to keep him and indeed if they are forced to sell, they are far more likely to do so only to another club rather than Liverpool.
In recent years Liverpool have taken five players from St Mary's and in several of those transfers Saints have been concerned about the manner in which the Anfield club conducted themselves and approached players under contract at St Mary's before contacting the club itself, back then the club were not in a strong position to say no to the money offered due to the players contracts all being run down and no sign of a new one being signed, but that is not the case with Virgil Van Dijk who has five years left on a six year deal signed only last year.
It will be interesting what the Premier League has to say about these things, but one thing is for sure Saints will not be brow beaten as they were in the past, they are in control of the situation and although Virgil Van Dijk has seemingly not said a word on the subject yet, all of the reports do not contain anything near a direct quote from him, all seem aimed at getting his head already in Liverpool as was the case with Dejan Lovren, therefore making it easier to pressure Saints into a sale, this time bullying tactics are not going to work !