Manchester City: Pursuit of Virgil is F.A.B, Pellegrino says go

The story surrounding yesterdays Tottenham against Southampton game was, quite rightly, all about Harry Kane. We’ll overlook the fact he shouldn’t even be on the pitch for these games after his tackle at the Etihad, and acknowledge the achievement.

The exclusion though, for a third game in a row, of Virgil van Dijk is something of an interesting turn. As you may remember, the Dutch International had put in a transfer request in the summer, which was turned down.

Liverpool courted the defender, then backed off when Southampton alleged some shenanigans on the part of the Reds. Van Dijk didn’t make the bench for the previous game at home to Huddersfield, and was again absent for the trip to Spurs. He was on the bench on December 16th for the trip to Stamford Bridge, but remained an unused sub.

Now, reports are also coming out that Southampton boss, Mauricio Pellegrino, is saying that not letting him go in the summer was a mistake. It was admirable of the Saints to not give into player power, something which was a theme of the summer as a whole.

Liverpool held onto Coutinho, and he seems to be playing for the club, despite not getting his move. It was an attitude similar to this the Saints hierarchy were hoping van Dijk to adopt. However, he seems to be following the path of Alexis Sanchez, who seems to have downed tools for the Gunners.

An ideal solution for Southampton, whose player is still expressing Champions League aspirations, would be to qualify themselves for the competition. With them currently nineteen points behind that last spot after twenty games, and in fourteenth position, that is going to be hard to sell to the player.

Next: Potential January Targets

There could be a bitter taste in the mouth as far as dealing with Liverpool goes. Although they backed off, it doesn’t change the fact they may be viewed as initially unsettling the player, resulting in this situation.

City are certainly in need of a Premier League savvy center back, and are in the Champions League. Mauricio Pellegrino was a former teammate with Pep Guardiola and so maybe, just maybe, we could get mates rates for the 26-year-old.