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Jamie Carragher

Jamie Carragher admits he wasn't convinced by Virgil van Dijk the first time he saw him play, thinking he was too BIG to play.

The Dutch defender is on the brink of winning a second Premier League title with Liverpool, having left Celtic a decade ago to join Southampton, before making a £75million move to Anfield three years later.

The 33-year-old has been hailed in some quarters as the best defender to ever play in the English top flight and Carragher has been a huge fan of Van Dijk ever since he stepped up and made his mark in England.



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But the Liverpool legend and Sky Sports pundit admits he didn't quite get the fuss at first, and could see why a number of teams were reluctant to take the plunge before the Saints finally did.

“I remember going to a game, Celtic v Ajax in the Champions League in 2013/14," he told the Stick to Football podcast.

Virgil van Dijk fouls Siem De Jong

“I didn’t really know too much about van Dijk.

And there was a few people watching van Dijk, and I watched him in the game.

“I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Oh, they should have signed him’.

He almost looked too big, at that time.

Because he almost played that cool and that sort of slow motion.

“And teams were watching him, and obviously just didn’t want to take a chance.”

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