Virgil van Dijk was one game away from joining Man City claims former manager

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was one game away from signing for Manchester City, according to his former manager at Celtic Ronny Deila. Deila says he offered the Etihad club the player, but they turned him down. Deila was manager of Celtic at the time, where Van Dijk had arrived from Norwegian top-flight outfit Stromsgodset in 2014. He said, via Goal : "Did I get in touch with City? Yes. I said you have to take him. They said, 'okay, tell me the best European game he has played and we will watch it'. I couldn't tell them what game that was because he hadn't had any real good European games. "He was really dominant in Scotland but he got sent off against Inter away. That was a big test. I think if he had played fantastically in that game, he would have been bought. I think Van Dijk was good, but he didn't have that one really, really good game in Europe." Source: Liverpool ECHO Join us on Telegram!