‘Very seduced’ Liverpool star ‘wants to play for Barcelona’ in ‘most worrying’ transfer update

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk is keen to move to Barcelona on a free transfer at the end of the season, according to reports.

The Reds are enjoying a wonderful first season under Arne Slot with the Dutchman guiding them to top spot in the Premier League table.

Liverpool are six points ahead of second-placed Arsenal, who they have a game in hand on, while they also came first in the Champions League group phase.

Slot’s side reached the Carabao Cup final last week after an aggregate victory over Tottenham in the semi-finals and their 1-0 loss to Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday has been their only major blip this season.

It could hardly have gone much better this season for Slot after leaving Feyenoord to take over from legendary Anfield boss Jurgen Klopp in the summer.

The Liverpool boss has had to deal with some off-field issues though with constant speculation over the futures of Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who are all out of contract at the end of the season.

There were claims earlier this week that Salah and Van Dijk had now agreed deals but Liverpool boss Slot rejected that is the case.

Slot revealed: “We have some contractual situations that you don’t probably don’t know about.

“But Trent, Mo and Virgil haven’t extended yet. So we are aware of the fact that we have to be sharp and ready for things that can happen.

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“My life is mainly short term but we have so many quality people at this club that look at the longer term as well. You always have to be prepared for all the new things coming up.

“The players that don’t play a big part at the moment; will they be able to do this another year? Will they fight for their place or will they [want to] go somewhere else? So we have to be prepared for the next window and what we can do.”

And now reports in Spain claim that Liverpool captain Van Dijk ‘wants to play for Barcelona’ as he has been ‘very seduced’ by the Catalan giants.

Despite Salah and Alexander-Arnold also having futures up in the air, the player ‘who is most worrying at Anfield’ is Van Dijk with Liverpool ‘doing everything possible to convince the former Groningen, Southampton and Celtic player to remain in Slot’s project’.

That latest report comes one day after claims that Van Dijk had received ‘three offers to leave’ Liverpool with Juventus, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich all putting a deal on the table.