I suppose it doesn’t really matter anymore, Southampton have put the Virgil van Dijk saga behind them, but there’s something about former players attempting to rewrite history like they were the wronged party that irks me and this is very much the case here.
The former Celtic man’s time at St Mary’s Stadium is well known and doesn’t require much repetition. Highly rated as he arrived and hugely rated as he left for a whopping £75million fee as reported – but his departure came amidst the signing of a new long term bumper contract, his injury, his transfer request, his refusal to play for a period and a complaint from Southampton that the Anfield side had illegally tapped him up.
Speaking to the BBC recently in an interview, van Dijk claimed he gave his ‘all’ for the club despite us denying him the transfer, and for those who remember the time, the actual facts that fans are aware of don’t track with his memory of those months.
“After the end of August I put my head down, played for Southampton and gave everything. I was happy to play because I came back from an eight-month injury. When everything happened over the summer, people doubt you. For me, I really didn’t care as I gave everything in games and training.”
They certainly didn’t for club legend Matt Le Tissier who seemed to react with a bit of shock to the centre-half’s claims.
— Matt Le Tissier (@mattletiss7) February 21, 2019
MLT qualified his thoughts as the conversation developed on social media.
Fully understand why he left but will never understand refusing to play for the club that pays you and then claim you gave everything for that club ????????♂️
— Matt Le Tissier (@mattletiss7) February 21, 2019
If van Dijk wants to rewrite history and play the victim, he’ll have to do a damn sight better than that.
