Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk is the most likely player to join Liverpool this summer, according to a Sky Sports section.
The broadcaster’s transfer centre blog (Friday, 12.11pm) plugged its Football Whispers section, which claimed that the highly-rated Dutch defender Van Dijk is the likeliest arrival for Anfield manager Jurgen Klopp.
Football Whispers, which gathers all transfer rumours from across the world and then calculates the likelihood of them happening, states that van Dijk has a 4.3 chance out of 5 that he will move to Anfield this summer, with a rating of 5 deemed as a certainty.
The deal is rated by the website as the third most likely of all possible transfers this summer, and the most expected of any at Liverpool ahead of Porto’s Iker Casillas and Hull City’s Andrew Robertson.
Centre-back Van Dijk is one of the most sought after players this summer, mainly down to his ability to defend well and play the ball out from the back.
The 25-year-old suffered an ankle injury in January and missed the remainder of the season for Claude Puel’s side, who went on to secure only five wins in his absence.
Van Dijk’s contract at St Mary’s is due to expire in 2022, which will make it likely that the club will demand an even higher transfer fee for their player if he were to be sold during the summer window.
During his career, the Dutchman has played for FC Groningen and Celtic before he moved to the Premier League in 2015, with the Saints paying in the region of £13million for his services.
Over the course of the season, he has played 30 matches in all competitions for Puel’s side, helping them secure 12 clean sheets, with the added contribution of four goals.