Jack Stephens doesn't "want to see anyone leaving" as Virgil van Dijk rumours hot up

As reported by the Daily Echo, interest in talismanic defender Van Dijk is high, with Liverpool preparing to start the race for his much sought after signature.

But Saints are preparing to dig their heels in as they look to keep the Dutchman, who also has Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City after him.

“We don’t want any of the boys leaving,” said Stephens.

“We’ve got a really good group of players here and a really close changing room.

“It’s a really good place to come in to every day, so from my point of view I don’t want to see anyone leaving and hopefully we don’t.

“But that’s the way football goes sometimes and if it does then we have to react and keep moving forward.”

The 23-year-old central defender believes that Saints could “bridge the gap” between them and Everton next season if the squad is kept together.

The Toffees finished 15 points ahead, but just one place above of eighth placed Saints in the Premier League last term.

The England Under-21 international reckons that the St Mary’s outfit have the quality in their ranks to compete with the Merseysiders, with consistency key to catching up Ronald Koeman’s men.

“You look at the games like Stoke, Hull at home, West Ham, they’re the type of games we want to be winning [to catch Everton],” he said.

“There’s not a massive gap between us and Everton, they’ve just been fairly consistent over the season. They’ve not got anywhere near the top six either.

“They’re firmly in seventh, but there’s not a massive gap.

“It’s just a few tweaks here and there and we’ll bridge the gap.”

Reflecting on the season just gone, he added: “If you look at some of results that we’ve had we could have had more points and be closer to Everton in seventh and maybe above them.

“Apart from Everton, this league’s very difficult when the top six perform so well and spend so much it’s difficult to break that.

“So we’re disappointed that we’re not closer to Everton or above them in seventh place.

“But we got to a cup final, which was fantastic for the club. It was disappointing to lose but it was a great occasion and it’s given all the boys and everyone at the club the motivation to try and get back there and win a trophy for this club. As for the league it’s mixed feelings because we feel we’ve done well. Eighth is a respectable position but we wanted more.”