Saints now appear to be favourites to land Celtic central defender Virgil Van Dijk however they will need to move fast with other interested parties.

Celtic are usually keen to hang on to their players until their fate in the Champions League qualifying games is known one way or the other, however with injury problems in the back four Ronald Koeman would like to tie up a move for Van Dijk sooner than later.

Although he will maybe feel that his current back four can cope with Vitesse at home he would ideally like to have Van Dijk in the squad ahead of the away leg, however even that is pushing it a bit now.

Van Dijk himself has already indicated that he is also keen to move stating publicly that if he were to play in any of Celtic's Champion's League fixtures it would cup tie him and therefore lower his transfer value to Celtic and has told them he wants to go and he wants to be able to play in Europe or any new club.

Van Dijk is also keen to break into the Dutch side ahead of the European Championships in 2016, he is as yet uncapped but is aware that it is difficult to push his cause playing in a league that has no effective opposition to his club and he is open to a move to one of the big leagues with the Premier being his first choice

There has been other interest for Van Dijk though, Arsenal and Manchester United have been linked but Saints have been instated as the favourites

Photo: Action Images

derbydog added 09:34 - Jul 26 I think you'll find he played for Celtic in the second leg of the last Champions League round, having been suspended for the first leg, so he is already cup tied. Still a good signing though as he can play him in the PL and the much-improved Yoshida can play in the Europa league.
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SaintNick added 09:41 - Jul 26 Your right, which shows that the quote in the press over the weekend from him was out of date. Not sure that Yoshida is really up to the job on a full time basis, he suffers from a concentration problem and can get away with that in small doses but not over too many 90 minutes as was shown at the tail end of last season
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derbydog added 10:21 - Jul 26 I don't fancy the alternative though, if the alternative is Ron Vlaar!
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perazi added 10:26 - Jul 26 I hope we sign Van Dijk, but the lack of many credible press reports linking him to us has me doubting VVD is heading our way. The strongest recent rumour seems to be for Chester from Hull!!
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BUCK added 10:31 - Jul 26 He's actually 2/1 joint favourite with crystal palace.
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BUCK added 10:34 - Jul 26 Chester isn't even in the betting to join saints so forget that one.
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StEdmund added 11:19 - Jul 26 What about Indi at Porto?
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ericofarabia added 11:34 - Jul 26 I posed the question about playing for Celtic in The CL and somebody come up with this ....... 41.07 As a rule, a player may not play in a UEFA club competition (i.e. UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, but not UEFA Super Cup) for more than one club in the course of the same season. Exceptionally, however, a player who has been fielded in the first, second, third qualifying round or the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League is entitled to play in the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League for another club as from the group stage. Moreover, as from the start of the round of 32, a player can be registered in accordance with Paragraph 43.01 to Paragraph 43.04. A substitute player who has not been fielded is entitled to play for another club competing in the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League in the course of the same season, provided that he is registered with the UEFA administration in accordance with the present regulations. Which unless I'm misreading means he would still be able to play for us in the event that we reach The Group Stages as things stand at the moment. HTH

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IWOZTHERE added 14:18 - Jul 26 Hurry up and do it Ron, even if we've got to shell out a bit more to secure him, a back-up shouldn't be too hard to find. I'm getting peed off (with respect) having to trawl through all these sites every day, hoping for news. I think I've got OCD ( obsessive centreback disorder).
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ExiledSupporter added 14:35 - Jul 26 Agree entirely, after the screw up over Toby (still can't quite grasp how that foul up happened given our head start by virtue of the contract with AM...does anyone have a clearer view) we can't afford to delay or quibble over prices when we know ManU and Arsenal are capable of paying significantly more if the urge takes them.
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