Mark Lawrenson did not have any issue with Virgil van Dijk chatting to Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi in the bowels of Anfield following Liverpool’s Champions League exit – but issued the Reds man with a warning.
A French journalist filmed Van Dijk speaking to the Qatari billionaire, as well as PSG sporting director Luis Campos, on Tuesday night and shared the clip on social media platform X, prompting concern from some Liverpool fans that the discussion may have centered around the Reds captain’s future.
Van Dijk’s current Liverpool contract is due to expire on June 30 this year, from which point he will be allowed to leave the Reds for free. He has technically been allowed to speak to foreign clubs since January 1, so Lawrenson couldn’t understanding why Van Dijk’s chat with Al-Khelaifi was even a talking point. He did, however, warn Van Dijk will be “slaughtered” if he had agreed to leave the Reds for nothing.
“Virgil van Dijk has been allowed to talk to any club since the 1st January,” Lawrenson said. “The fact he was talking to whoever he was from PSG means absolutely nothing because he could just call him every day after January 1st and have a conversation with him.
“It’s not an issue and it’s all a little bit strange and I thought for a while that because it was silent that they had sorted out Mo Salah and Van Dijk’s contracts but decided not to announce it yet. But I just don’t know, it’s very strange that we’ve not heard anything. Normally someone finds out and leaks it.
“Just say for instance that the captain [Van Dijk] has agreed to go somewhere, he’ll probably think ‘Crikey, I’ve got to play all these games as the captain of Liverpool’. Suddenly, if people find out that he’s going, he’ll get slaughtered.”
Meanwhile, RMC Sport claimed to know what Van Dijk’s conversation with Al-Khelaifi and Campos entailed. The French outlet reported that Van Dijk apologized to Campos following an incident that took place at half-time in the first leg. Campos had complained to the referee in the players’ tunnel at the Parc des Princes following a first-half challenge by Ibrahima Konate, prompting Van Dijk to shout “it’s not Ligue 1”, suggesting that the threshold for fouls might be lower in the French top flight than it is in Europe.
(Image: X/@CasseJosue)
Van Dijk is reported to have said sorry to Campos for that, while he is also reported to have informed Al-Khelaifi and Campos that Luis Enrique’s PSG side is the best team that he has come up against in the last three years, which is high praise considering the quality of the Manchester City sides that Liverpool has faced in recent times.
Van Dijk was actually asked about his future in the mixed zone at Anfield after the game and responded: “I still have no idea [about my future] at the moment. Genuinely, I have no idea. It is not on hold. Nothing is on hold. I keep saying the same thing. There are 10 games to go and that is my full focus.
“If there is news, you guys will know it. I don’t even know myself. Everyone knows there are some conversations behind the scenes, but that is about it. At the moment, I don’t even know what will happen next year. If anyone says they do know, they are lying to your face.”
