Some Southampton fans have been discussing Virgil van Dijk after a post about the Dutchman went viral on social media.
The Southampton Twitter account recently posted a video of Van Dijk scoring for the Saints during his time at the club. A Southampton fan shared this video, saying that fans need to ‘get over’ Van Dijk’s departure to Liverpool. The post asked Saints fans to celebrate that they ‘had the world’s best defender’ at St. Mary’s for some years.
On seeing this post, many Saints fans were left to talk about Van Dijk. Some agreed with what the post had to say.
Best defender I’ve ever seen in 22 years of watching live football!
— Dave Coutinho (@coutinhojr30) April 16, 2020
Been saying this for ages, same with all the other players, let’s just be grateful that we had the time to enjoy the skills at our club.
— Stuart Vahid (@StuartVahid) April 16, 2020
Are you disgusted by how Van Dijk left Southampton?
Yes, he was unprofessional
Not at all
PREACH! ?? Further on from this…people also need to stop having such bitter feelings about Liverpool taking our players, just appreciate that we’ve had some of the best players to grace a pitch come through our club
— Benny the Bearded Wonder (@BenneseeWhiskey) April 16, 2020
However, some Southampton fans made it clear that they didn’t like the way Van Dijk left the club.
I ain’t celebrating anything about a professional footballer who refuses to play for the club paying his wages when under contract (that he willingly signed) as a way of leveraging his own gain.
— Ben Palmer (@BenPalmer78) April 16, 2020
I don’t have a problem with him or for eg mane moving to earn more money. Its the way he left.
— Raul Vaid (@rvaid3) April 16, 2020
Very hard to do ,at the cup final in the car park after the game a group of mixed age saints fans inc me all sang the Virgil song as he was getting into his car(as he was injured ) , he heard us and completely ingnored us and my dad a fan of over 60 years was rightly disgusted
— Ray (@splurtissier) April 16, 2020
Van Dijk was at Southampton from the summer of 2015 till the winter of 2018. He had arrived at Southampton from Celtic and joined Liverpool in what was then a world-record transfer for a defender.
What do we think?
Van Dijk made 80 appearances in all competitions for the Saints, scoring seven goals (via Transfermarkt). This shows that he did make a decent impact on the south coast of England and he should be respected for it. But considering he had gone on strike towards the end of his tenure, one can see why Saints fans have mixed feelings about him.