Virgil van Dijk could have been partnering William Saliba if Arsenal decided to sign him before his Liverpool days.
Before his status as the world’s best defender, the Dutchman began his journey in British football with Scottish giants Celtic in 2013. The Bhoys splashed out £2.6million for his services as he joined the club from boyhood club Groningen.
Van Dijk was under constant surveillance from various Premier League clubs during his two-year stint at Celtic Park, with Arsenal and Liverpool among his suitors.
While the 32-year-old eventually joined Southampton in 2015 in a £13m deal, there was a chance he could have been suiting up for the North London side instead of heading down to the south coast.
According to former Celtic assistant boss John Collins, former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was a fan of the centre-back but decided against a move after ex-chief scout, Steve Rowley, believed Van Dijk was too “nonchalant”.
“Arsenal’s chief scout thought he was too nonchalant,” Collins told beIN Sport. Maybe that was part of his game but he ticks so many of the other boxes. He’s got pace, power, balance, distribution and he’s good in the air. He can be a bit nonchalant but he is a quality player.”
Collins added that Brendan Rodgers “didn’t fancy” the defender and thought his current options of Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren, and Mamadou Sakho was good enough. “Gary McAllister was the assistant to Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool and I told him I hope you’re going to come and take Virgil but Brendan didn’t fancy him and didn’t think he was better than what he already had,” the former Celtics player remarked.
The 55-year-old said despite the big clubs consistently watching him in action, their fear stemmed in that he was doing it in an inferior league to the Premier League. “He would’ve cost around £12m – every team watched him regularly but the worry was he was showing it against Scottish players but you could tell he was strong, powerful and a well balanced player.”
Van Dijk spent just two years at Southampton before Liverpool forked out a then-world record fee for a defender in a £75m deal where he’s gone on to win the biggest trophies in football.
