Southampton legendMatt Le Tissier has taken a less than subtledig at Liverpool, before going on to claim that the Reds will have to pay £50m to sign long-termtarget Virgil Van Dijk.
Le Tissier, 48, said that the much-publicised stream of players going from Southampton to Liverpool is clearlyworking well, as the Saints have pocketed over £100m in recent years, and still finished above the Merseysiderslast term.
Speaking to theDaily Recordabout Celtic and Van Dijk,the one-club legendjoked:What happens is that Liverpool pay us loads of money for players and then we take a bit of that money and give it to Celtic. It's a nice little circle!
So far, the arrangement has worked well. Liverpool have given us over £100 million over the last three seasons and they still couldn't finish above us last season!�
Many now believe that the next in lineto move from the south-coast to the north-westis Dutch defender Van Dijk, who has taken plaudits for a number of impressive performances so far this season.
However, Le Tissier believes only a huge bid of up to £50m would be enough to tempt the former Celtic player away.
He added:From what I have seen this season, I'd suggest it would take between £40-50m to get Virgil Van Dijk away from Southampton.
Liverpool will have to pay £50m for Van Dijk, claims Matt Le Tissier https://t.co/4MhAxpEmL7
I would be very surprised if he was let go for anything less than that because he has signed a new long-term deal. Celtic [his former club] will have a sell-on clause and rightly so. That's good business by them.
If Van Dijk stayed for a couple of years I'd be absolutely delighted. But I doubt we'll keep him for that long. I'm hoping we can at least keep him until the end of the season because then it doesn't disrupt things too much. Hopefully, we don't lose him in January.
We have signed three top-notch players from Celtic who have managed to do very good jobs. Big Vic has moved on but he did a cracking job during his time here.
Fraser is still terrific but van Dijk is probably the best centre-back in the Premier League at the moment. He is as good as that. I have seen a lot of Southampton this season.
At times, he looks like a man playing in a boy's game. He really does. He had Romelu Lukaku in his pocket for the entire game Everton on Sunday. He is superb.
I wasn't surprised by Southampton going to Celtic and Scottish football for players because I know the scouting system at the club is superb. They do real in-depth research into players they buy.
Yes, you are taking something of a chance because you don't know how they are going to react when they come to the Premier League. So far, though, they have picked out three absolute gems.�