Mauricio Pellegrino Insists Virgil van Dijk's Sale to Liverpool Is Positive for Southampton

Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino has insisted the sale of Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool will be positive for the club.

The Saints finally agreed to let the player leave for Anfield this week, following the Reds' summer-long pursuit that proved fruitless.

Fans are quite disappointed to see the Merseyside club swoop in for yet another one of their stars, yet Pellegrino has no problems seeing the player leave, especially as Southampton are set to rake in a world-record fee for a defender of £75m.

"You have to analyse in a positive way to reinvest this money in our squad to try to be stronger," Pellegrino told the press. "At Southampton it is impossible to bring in players for £80m or £50m.

"But maybe for us it can mean a couple of good players. Maybe we can change one player for two or three players with this money. We are talking about the couple of targets that we've got. I would like to bring in a couple of players minimum and we have to work for this."

The 46-year-old also admitted being unhappy with some of the team's results this season, but noted that there is still a lot of time to bounce back.

"Obviously I respect the opinion," he added. "I've got the same feeling as the fans. I am obviously not happy when we don't play well. I would like to keep the people proud of our team.

"But we have almost 50 per cent of the season ahead and we have time to bounce back and show another face. For this reason we have to come back to the simple principles."