Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk admits he is yet to hold talks over a contract extension at Anfield, but stressed he has no plans to leave the club this summer.
Van Dijk is approaching the final 12 months of his current deal and, with manager Jurgen Klopp walking away this summer, many have suggested the Dutchman could follow suit as Liverpool head into a new era.
However, an immediate exit is not in Van Dijk’s plans as he revealed his excitement towards competing with Manchester City for the Premier League title next season.
“My future is not important at the moment,” Van Dijk said. “The only thing I can say now is if I have a farewell I don’t think I would keep it dry [not cry] because that was something I was very surprised with with [Klopp].
“These fans are something else and eventually when they say goodbye to you then it will be special. Even with Joel Matip, I said: ‘How did you manage to keep it dry pal?’
“He just wanted to walk through [the guard of honour] quickly and stand with us so I think he did that pretty well.
“At the moment there is nothing for me to say. Nothing has changed and nothing is on the table either. No changes in my situation at all.”
On Liverpool‘s future without Klopp, Van Dijk added:”Massive change. Not only the manager but there are multiple departments within the club that have a lot of staff members leaving and we are at the stage we have to trust the club in this project and this route they are taking and we will see in pre-season how things will look.
“Change is sometimes a little bit scary as you are in the unknown but the only thing you can do is trust the club and we will find out how it looks when we come back and report for pre-season.
“One thing I do know is we need a good break after our tournament because otherwise we will be in trouble as well going into the season. Hopefully the new manager will look into that as well.
“I don’t want to compare our situation to other teams but I can only see what is in there and how we have been performing the whole season.
“There is so much room for improvement, so much room to develop, personally as players but definitely as a group in certain situations and it will be interesting, I am looking forward to it and looking forward to next season already.
“Hopefully we can be up there again and be consistent. That’s the main thing. We have to be together as a group and stay consistent. Even in not as good times you still have to stick together and that is something we need, especially going into next season. I’m not worried that’s not the case so that’s a good thing but it’s definitely something you have to keep working on.”
What we know
- Van Dijk approaching the final 12 months of his Liverpool contract
- Dutchman yet to hold talks over an extension
- Jurgen Klopp’s departure a ‘massive change’ to the club.