Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, will target Virgil van Dijk in the future despite Southampton refusing to sell the centre back.

Van Dijk will remain at St Mary’s in the short term, but Liverpool will continue to hold an interest in the player, who submitted a transfer request.

Liverpool were forced to pull out of the chase for the Holland defender after being accused of tapping him up, but Southampton were aware that they would have paid £70 million and still chose to stand firm.

Jonny Evans had also been at the centre of much transfer interest, not least from Manchester City. Last night though, as the defender flew out with his Northern Ireland team-mates for their World Cup qualifier against San Marino, he remained