Jose Mourinho’s response after Chris Kamara told him to sign Virgil van Dijk for Man Utd before Liverpool transfer
JOSE MOURINHO gave TV legend Chris Kamara a very interesting response when the roving reporter suggested he sign Virgil van Dijk for Manchester United.
The Dutch defender was the talk of the town after multiple outstanding seasons for Southampton.
After being repeatedly linked with a move to one of the Premier League’s big teams, Liverpool eventually swooped in the January of the 2017-18 season.
The record-breaking £75m they paid now looks like a bargain as Van Dijk almost single-handedly fixed the club’s leaky defence and helped propel them to silverware under Jurgen Klopp.
But it all could have been so different if then Man United boss Mourinho had listened to one popular football pundit.
Kamara, the former Soccer Saturday reporter, revealed on his podcast that he personally intervened to advise Mourinho to move for Van Dijk.
But the Portuguese coach immediately shot him down.
Kamara said: “I can exclusively reveal that I told Jose to take him to Manchester United and Jose said, ‘These lot won’t give me the money for him.’
“Yeah, and he went to Liverpool.”
Van Dijk would go on to win Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and Carabao Cup while at Anfield, which constitutes every major trophy a player can win in England.
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In contrast, Mourinho would take home the league cup and Europa League in his first season managing United but things would eventually unravel in his third campaign before any more trophies could be won.
United would spend big for a centre-back 18 months after Liverpool as they bought Harry Maguire for £80m in 2019 under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But he has had a mixed time of it since his big money move and has failed to match the influence that Van Dijk had at Liverpool.