Football pundit Chris Kamara has stated that he once told Jose Mourinho to sign Virgil van Dijk whilst the Portuguese coach was at Man United and although he wanted the elite defender, the former Chelsea boss was confident the Glazers would not give him the money.
Speaking on the BBC’s Proper Football Podcast, Kamara said: “I can exclusively reveal that I told Jose [Mourinho] to take him to Manchester United and Jose said, “These lot won’t give me the money for him.” Yeah, and he went to Liverpool.”
At the time, Van Dijk had impressed many of England’s big clubs following spells at Celtic and Southampton but it was Liverpool where he would eventually end up following a £75m move in January 2017.
The Dutch star’s time at Anfield has been very successful but it could have been the Reds’ bitter rivals that reaped the rewards of the centre-back’s talent.
The signing of Van Dijk would have been a huge moment for Man United as it would have certainly made their defence much better. Having the Dutch star would also have stopped the Red Devils from paying big money for Harry Maguire – a scenario many Man United fans would have liked to have played out.
However, we will never know what impact the Liverpool star could have had at Old Trafford but it certainly was an opportunity missed, and it will only fuel United’s fans’ detest for their American owners following Mourinho’s words.