Blues will not dwell on Virgil disappointment – he was never the final piece of summer jigsaw
CITY will not be getting Virgil van Dijk for next season and he instead looks set to line up for one of their rivals.
As a result, the Blues still have £60m in their pockets for the summer and Liverpool will not.
Who has the better deal?
Jurgen Klopp chalks up the initial point on the board (providing Southampton do not succeed in blocking the move.)
Any transfer sorted within weeks of the last season finishing gets bonus points for getting business done early, as City enjoyed as they swooped for Bernardo Silva.
Winning a transfer battle that involved Pep Guardiola and Chelsea is no small feat either.
Liverpool do not have the Premier League titles that either of their competitors possess and have only two top-four finishes in the last eight seasons, so convincing a player yearning for Champions League football that Anfield can regularly supply it is a considerable achievement.
The prize is a 25-year-old defender that has proven his quality in the Premier League and believes he can make the step up to play for one of the leading clubs.
Klopp, Guardiola and Antonio Conte were all suitably impressed but it is the German that was able to get the best message across to the player.
However, early disappointment for City can quickly be forgotten.
The fact that the club weren’t convinced by a £60m price tag suggests both that they are more
interested in value than timeliness and that they are happy to find it in the following months.
There are two ways City can come out of this better, the first being if Van Dijk and/or Liverpool do not hit the ground running next season and the second if their defence shows no need for him.
Leonardo Bonucci could be on his way to the Premier League, a player Guardiola has gone on record to declare his admiration for. There will be others who rise above the radar in the coming months and meanwhile City are going full throttle to fill their full-back department.
It may well be that Van Dijk establishes himself as an excellent signing and one of the best centrebacks in the division.
Even if he does though, City will know that not buying him won’t ruin all of their plans for the summer – he was never the final jigsaw piece.
And if they do go back into the market for another centre-back, it’s unlikely they would have to spend any more than Liverpool are willing to pay for the Southampton man.
One opportunity may be gone but more will come City’s way.
It is up to them to make a success of it.