Van Dijk will renew his contract only when a proper replacement and coaching staff are formed.
British media ‘Sky Sports’ reported on the 29th (Korea time), “Virgil van Dijk admits that he is not sure whether he will be a member of Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp, and said the club’s leadership is doing a “big job” to replace Klopp.”
Klopp stunned the soccer world by announcing he was leaving Liverpool at the end of this season. Klopp took over in October 2015, and his contract was until 2026. During his nine years with Liverpool, Klopp lifted all the trophies, including his 2019 Champions League win and his club’s first league win in 30 years in 2020.
Regarding the reason for quitting, Klopp said on LFC TV, “I’m fine. I’m as healthy as [I can be] at my age. I have a little bit of a minor illness, but no one has to worry, so I’m fine. I’ve already told the club in November. I have to explain that what I do looks like I’m on the touchline and taking part in training sessions from the outside, but I actually have to explain that most of the work is done around these things.”
He continued, “When one season starts, it means that I’m already almost planning for the next season. When we sat down together and talked about the next summer camp and where we could go, I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can be here anymore’ and I was surprised, too. Obviously, that’s what I started thinking. It didn’t start then, but of course, last season was a very difficult season, so if it was another club, there would have been a moment when I made a decision to break up here or end it here.”
Klopp continued, “Of course that didn’t happen here. For me, it was really, really important to be able to help get this team back on track. When I realized early on that this was a really good team with tremendous potential, different ages, characters and more, I started to think about myself again, and this is what happened. It’s not what I want to do, it’s what I think is 100% right. That’s it.”
Liverpool captain Van Dyke became the first Liverpool player to speak about Klopp’s situation since his resignation announcement. Van Dyke told Liverpool, “It’s a tough decision to take, because it means a lot to my team, to me, to the club, and to the whole Premier League 월카지노도메인. But he made the decision for himself and his family. I always expected it to be a tough decision, and it really did.”
Van Dyck explained the moment Klopp broke the news to his players, adding, “Of course, I spoke personally, and we were all together. As I said earlier, it is a difficult decision to accept, but our mindset is to focus on business.”
Finally, he said, “We still have a lot of goals to achieve this year, so why don’t we end the season with congratulations for the coach?”
Now that Van Dyke, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold all have 18 months left on their contracts, many important decisions remain to be made before the summer arrives. However, Van Dyke delayed renewing his contract after Klopp’s resignation.
Asked if he thinks he will be part of the next generation, Van Dyke said, “It’s a big question. I don’t know. It’s a well-known fact that the club will be tasked with big things (after Klopp). Not only the manager but also all the staff have to be replaced and a lot will change.”
He continued, “I’m very curious about which direction I’ll take, but we’ll have to wait and see when the announcement comes out. The Klopp era will be over, and I don’t want to talk about it because I’m still a part of it, but that’s my main focus. Hopefully we can all achieve the success we all dream of, by then we’ll be clearer about what the club wants for the future, and by then we’ll know.”