Never Forget Manchester United Turned Down Virgil Van Dijk For Victor Lindelof

Virgil van Dijk reportedly knew Manchester United chose to sign Victor Lindelof over him in 2017 - meaning he was free to join Liverpool six months later.

Van Dijk arrived at Anfield from Southampton in a £75 million deal in January 2018, which was a world record for a defender at the time.

The 30-year-old is now one of the best around and a valuable member of Jurgen Klopp's side.

Things could've been so different, however. Charlie Austin was a teammate of van Dijk's during his time at St Mary's and he revealed an interesting chat he had with the Netherlands international.

🤷‍♂️ “At #SaintsFC I said to Virgil that surely Man Utd had to be in for him.”

😲 “Virgil told me it was between him & Victor Lindelof...”

🔴 “I’m not sure [if he wanted Utd move], his heart was set on #LFC.”

Charlie Austin reveals #MUFC chose to sign Lindelof over Van Dijk! 👀 pic.twitter.com/oWG9OSc0lj

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) January 25, 2021

"We were sat on the bench at Chelsea away and I asked him what was going on, I said surely United have been in for you?", Austin told talkSPORT.

"He told me, 'you know what Chaz, it was between me or Victor Lindelof, and they signed Lindelof.'

"I was gobsmacked, just the same as you.

"There was obviously talk he was going to go there in the summer, then they went for Lindelof instead."

Liverpool currently have a quadruple in their sights having already won the Carabao Cup.

They're in the FA Cup final, Champions League semi-finals and one point behind Manchester City in the Premier League.

Lindelof joined United from Benfica for £30 million months prior and has forged a decent career for himself at Old Trafford, given the club's struggles in recent years.

The Sweden captain regularly started under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with the latter settling on Lindelof as Harry Maguire's preferred partner for two seasons.

Raphael Varane joined last summer and he's taken Lindelof's place next to captain Maguire. The former Real Madrid man has had his own injury issues however and Lindelof's managed to make 25 league appearances.

United are sixth in the Premier League and have to win all three of their remaining games to ensure they don't finish with their worst ever points tally.

Lindelof believes it's important to finish strongly ahead of new manager Erik ten Hag's arrival in the summer.

"I think it’s very, very important for ourselves to try to do that," he said in United's match programme.

"This season obviously hasn’t been good enough and of course us as players take responsibility for that. 

"We just want to try to finish this season strongly and try to win these remaining games."