Virgil van Dijk for £5m? Why Crystal Palace rejected the transfer

Robin Bairner

16 Jun 2022 05:35 CDT
3 min read

Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool, 2021/22 — © ProShots

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk is regarded as the world’s best centre-back over the course of the last five years, having enjoyed a startling rise since his early days with Groningen.

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The Anfield club signed him in January 2018 for the best part of €80 million from Southampton, but one former Premier League manager has revealed he once rejected the opportunity to sign the Netherlands star for less than 10% of that figure.

Neil Warnock, who retired from football following the end of the 2020/21 season, says that he might have signed Van Dijk for a song but was advised to turn the offer down.

"The one that got away from me was Virgil van Dijk," he told the Mirror. "I was offered him at Crystal Palace for £5m but my chief scout said he was too slow and he ended up at Southampton instead.

"It's a shame because anything he may lack in pace, he makes up for ten-fold in his ability to read the game."

When was Van Dijk offered to Palace?

Man Utd signed Lindelof over Van Dijk, claims former teammate — © ProShots

Warnock’s comments are rather puzzling, though. Firstly, his assertion that Van Dijk lacks pace is a strange one. The Dutchman, after all, was clocked recording the fastest sprint speed in the 2018/19 Champions League, while any concerns about his footspeed have typically been reserved until after his serious knee injury, though his performance levels have not dropped.

Meanwhile, just when during his stints at Crystal Palace Van Dijk might have been available for £5m is also questionable.

Between his 2007-10 spell, Van Dijk was playing with Willem II’s youth side and then moved to Groningen on a free transfer in 2010. It is unlikely that an asking price of £5m would have been demanded for a teenager not even on the first-team radar of a side relegated from the Eredivisie. Had he gone for that price, the unheralded Van Dijk would have been their second-biggest sale ever.

Similarly, when Warnock returned to Palace in August 2014 at the end of the summer transfer window, Van Dijk was already excelling to such a degree in Scotland with Celtic that the Parkhead club would surely not have offered him for such a measly sum. Warnock had been sacked by the time the January transfer window rolled around.