Southampton set to fight to hold on to Virgil van Dijk in the face of interest from Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City

The Reds are expected to test Saints’ resolve with an opening offer for the Dutch centre half, but with Chelsea and Manchester City among those also keen on landing him this summer they face stiff competition.

However, Saints are far from resigned to losing van Dijk during this transfer window.

It is believed that only an eye watering offer would even tempt Saints to consider selling van Dijk, and that would certainly have to be far in excess of the £50m currently quoted.

The thinking at St Mary’s is that if van Dijk is worth £50m this summer, then he will be worth at least that in a year’s time.

With the 25-year-old having five years left on his contract after signing a mega deal in May 2016, his value is protected for Saints.

They would like van Dijk to stay for the long term, but certainly for at least another season.

There could be potential parallels with the Morgan Schneiderlin situation, where he gave Saints another big season before being allowed to move on when a fair offer came in the following year. Schneiderlin eventually went to Manchester United.

Key to the situation will be the attitude of van Dijk and whether he is happy to stay or if he agitates for a move.

He has been a very stable character during his time at Saints, and there is plenty of optimism that he will settle straight back into next season at St Mary’s if that is to be the case.

Should he kick up a fuss behind the scenes it would make things harder for Saints.

Likewise, if a bidding war erupts for his services and the potential fee rockets then Saints may have to make a cold business decision and cash in.

However, there is a definite sense of a steely determination at Saints not to be pushed around in this transfer window by bigger clubs trying to pick off star players.

With the club’s finances getting back in order, and a fairly big squad already in place, chairman Ralph Krueger insisted in a recent interview that Saints will be in the driving seat regarding all players sales, no matter whether a takeover occurs or not.

He said: “We do not need to sell any players.

“Whether the ownership changes or not it is not going to change our strategic position.

“We have the backing of Katharina and/or any potential change which we as a management team feel extremely comfortable with.

“We have a strategy which is being fine-tuned but the base is in place.

“We are pre-positioned for the transfer window and we do not have to sell any player. That will be our decision and whether it is in the best interests of the club or not.”