According to BBC Sport, Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger claims that the Virgil van Dijk transfer speculation left a ‘cloud’ over the club for the first half of the season.
Krueger believes that the decision to block Van Dijk’s transfer last summer has had a negative impact on the club. Van Dijk handed in a transfer request and demanded a move to Liverpool, but the Saints made it clear that they wouldn’t agree on a deal after the player and his agent staged unsolicited transfer talks with Premier League clubs.
The Telegraph broke the news that a £75m deal was in place to sell the Dutchman to Liverpool in late December, with Krueger now admitting his club may have been too risky by standing firm on their decision back in August.
Emotionally, it threw us off balance and financially it was a huge business risk. To make a stand and principle like that creates an earthquake.
Krueger was the one who gave Mauricio Pellegrino his backing despite the Argentinian only managing four wins from his opening 21 Premier League games in charge.
In no way, shape or form am I angry at any one individual for what has happened here in the past months.
It was under the shadow of a stand and principle. That chapter closes now. The cloud was there, we allowed a certain negativity into our very fragile environment, which is based on positivity, creativity, unity and looking at solutions. I believe we can truly get back to that now.
Southampton are now just one place above the relegation zone following their 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on Tuesday night. Pellegrino was appointed in June after Claude Puel was sacked following their poor run towards the end of the season. However, Pellegrino is now struggling to win the fans over and they now haven’t won in nine games.
We believe we can climb back up the table with the group we have. We’re a club on a long-term plan.
From the get-go, Mauricio has completely embraced the way we operate here. The transfer that has just gone through is the end of a very difficult phase for the club.
We feel we have a superb group of players at the club and that we’re well poised to attack the second half of the season.
