‘You can’t be serious’: Man City balked at Van Dijk fee
Manchester City balked at the £75million fee Liverpool paid Southampton for centre-half Virgil van Dijk.
Liverpool made Van Dijk the most expensive defender in history when signing him for a club-record fee in January.
Van Dijk had been courted by Chelsea and City as well as the Reds over the previous 18 months, but his valuation proved inhibitive to any deal.
Liverpool eventually acquiesced and agreed to meet the demanded fee, but City bought Aymeric Laporte instead for a relative pittance at £57m.
The new Amazon Prime documentary All or Nothing has shed a light on City’s reaction to Van Dijk’s price tag.
The third episode in the season shows chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak in conversation with director of football Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano.
“Txiki, a central defender, come on what are we doing?” asks Al-Mubarak, before Soriano interrupts and says to Begiristain: “I told him about the price tag.”
Ben Kingsley, the narrator for the documentary, then adds: “City have inquired about Southampton central defender Virgil van Dijk but the price tag is proving an issue.”
At this stage, the camera cuts back to Al-Mubarak discussing the situation with Begiristain, where he repeats the phrase “You can’t be serious” twice.
