Southampton force Van Dijk to train alone

VIRGIL VAN DIJK has been made to train on his own after rocking Southampton by making clear his intentions to leave this summer.

The Holland international has his heart set on a move to Liverpool but the Anfield club were forced to withdraw their interest in Van Dijk last month after Southampton reported them to the Premier League over allegations of tapping up.

Van Dijk ( right) had returned to training with Southampton and had been going about his business without fuss but that has now changed after he told Mauricio Pellegrino, the club’s new manager, he was not ‘making himself available for selection.’

Southampton head to France next week to continue their preparations for the forthcoming season but Van Dijk will remain at their Staplewood base to work alone. He will be excluded from the first-team squad until he has proven to Pellegrino that he is in the right frame of mind to continue. Pellegrino said: ‘The boy said that he is not available to play because he wants to leave. This is the decision. I had to say, “if you don’t want to be involved because you don’t feel OK then you have to train alone”.’ Throughout this saga, Southampton have been adamant that Van Dijk will not be sold during this transfer window and their hardline stance will not suddenly crumble regardless of what he has said to Pellegrino about what he wants. It remains to be seen, though, whether this is the end of the matter as nothing has changed in terms of Jurgen Klopp being a huge admirer of Van Dijk and the 26-year- old wanting to move to Anfield. Van Dijk’s contract at St Mary’s runs to 2022 and Southampton will not consider selling to anyone — he has also been courted by Chelsea and Manchester City — for less than £70million.

Meanwhile, the founder of the Chinese firm leading the bidding to take over Southampton claims owner Katharina Liebherr is now considering not selling the club.

Lander Sports Development have been in negotiations about a £200million deal for an 80 per cent stake in the club since the start of the year. And the potential sale was thrown into doubt yesterday when Lander owner Gao Jisheng revealed that Liebherr was unsure whether she still wished to sell the club.

‘It is not clear at the moment, the seller is having second thoughts about selling the club,’ Gao said in Beijing. A spokesman for Lander later denied that Gao had made the comments and Southampton were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Lander’s potential purchase has already been subject to scrutiny from the Premier League, who were concerned that Gao had previously admitted to bribing Chinese officials more than a decade ago, and was given immunity from prosecution because of his testimony.