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Manchester City and Chelsea have been beaten to the Dutchman. The Reds agreed a world-record fee for a defender of £75m to land Jurgen Klopp’s top target. Following discreet negotiations over the past few days, an agreement was reached today. Van Dijk is set to earn £180,000 a week at Anfield. And he will officially become a Liverpool player when the transfer window opens on January 1. Van Dijk's switch to Liverpool was announced at 6pm after he underwent a medical today.
Their pursuit during the summer had to be put on the backburner after Southampton accused them of tapping up Van Dijk. But while Liverpool cooled their charge to lure the defender to Merseyside, Van Dijk made it clear he wanted to go With the New Year fast approaching, Van Dijk has played his last game for the Saints. City had been confident of winning the battle, while Antonio Conte has been keen to take Van Dijk to Chelsea. But Liverpool was always his first choice. Southampton will subsequently look to reinvest the money from Van Dijk's sale to strenghten their squad. They have been dragged into a relegation battle after a poor run of form and are in need of goals especially. Liverpool, though, will be delighted to have staved off City and Chelsea's interest.
It will become the joint-second biggest transfer in Premier League history, level with Romelu Lukaku's £75m move to Manchester United from Everton, and only behind United's £89 Paul Pogba deal. The most expensive defender in football became Kyle Walker in the summer when City paid Tottenham £54m for the right-back, but Van Dijk will comfortably eclipse that. Naby Keita was set to become Liverpool's record signing in the summer, but Van Dijk will ultimately cost around £25m more than the RB Leipzig midfielder. Meanwhile, Celtic are set to receive a hefty £7.5m as part of the transfer. The Scottish club arranged a 10 per cent sell-on clause as part of their deal with Southampton back in 2015.
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