Virgil van Dijk turns 35 in July and Liverpool have already started planning for his exit
Arne Slot is thrilled with the signing of Jeremy Jacquet and accepts Liverpool will soon have to accept there will be “life without” Virgil van Dijk.
Jacquet’s move from Rennes for a fee in the region of £60m was completed on transfer deadline day although the 20-year-old will spend the rest of the season with the Ligue 1 club before joining Liverpool in the summer.
The size of the fee has attracted attention – former France World Cup winner Christophe Dugarry labelled Liverpool “suckers” for parting with that much money – but Slot says it is sensible recruitment given Van Dijk turns 35 in July.
“Everything that is done here is never in panic, it’s always a long-term idea or something that has been thought about for a long time,” he said.
“Of course, we are aware of the fact that Virgil will not play for this club for 10 more years but he has a one-and-a-half year contract left so he will be with us for that period of time and maybe even longer if he keeps staying fit as he is now. As I’ve said before, what a compliment to him at his age to play every three days, not only for his club but also for his country.
“Hopefully he can stay as fit as he is for multiple years but this club, we are not stupid, we know somewhere in the upcoming years there is life without Virgil. I can say for every position that this club is not only thinking about short-term but the mid- and long-term future in the decisions we make.”
Liverpool boss Slot ‘very pleased’ with Jacquet signing
Jacquet is a France Under-21 international and could be parachuted straight into the first team on his arrival with Van Dijk’s regular partner Ibrahima Konate’s contract due to expire at the end of the season.
Slot said of Jacquet’s arrival: “Very pleasing of course. He’s a very big talent and maybe even more than talent but we speak about talent because of his age. Second, because we weren’t the only one interested in him so it’s a big compliment to the people working really hard to sign players.
“It’s another example of the model we’re using at this club – young, very talented players sometimes at the start of their careers or sometimes already a few years into their career but always players that are young and can improve us in the short term but also definitely in the long term.
“We’ve signed a lot of them recently and like I’ve said many times in the mid/long-term future of this club, and even the short term, it is in a very good place.”
Would have been strange to let Curtis Jones leave Liverpool – Slot
Liverpool head into Sunday’s clash with Manchester City in sixth place in the Premier League.
Curtis Jones is likely to start the game on the bench once again after coming on as a late substitute in last weekend’s 4-1 win over Newcastle.
The England midfielder is another player whose contract is running down, although he does still have 17 months left.
Jones was linked with a January switch to Inter Milan but remained at Anfield.
Slot said: “He’s played a lot of minutes, not all of them, but he’s also unlucky in the sense that it’s the only line where we haven’t had injuries, but he’s still played a lot of minutes and that’s of course why we kept him.
“We have a lot of players in that line but we need these midfielders in different positions as well and the moment you need that, the line in midfield gets smaller and smaller. The situation hasn’t changed. To us, he is one of the 16 players we have available for the long-term and also in this moment in time. Would be a bit strange if we let anyone go if we only have 16 of them.”
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