VIRGIL van Dijk has jetted off with Saints to their pre-season trip to Austria, where manager Mauricio Pellegrino will continue to mould his team with the captain at the heart of his plans.

In the mind of the club's senior figures, Van Dijk's future remains very much at St Mary's, and have no interest, as has been reported, in selling the talismanic centre-back.

The Dutchman, who celebrated his 26th birthday last Saturday, was on the plane to Saints' Austrian training camp, despite a continuing stream of gossip stories relating to an exit to Liverpool.

Van Dijk has also attracted interest from Chelsea and Manchester United, but they have both now secured the services of other centre-back targets.

The latest national newspaper reports suggest that Van Dijk is keen to push through a move to Anfield.

However, with no bid on the table and these claims very much unsubstantiated at this stage, Pellegrino will continue to shape his team with Van Dijk a key man in that.

The former Celtic man, who Saints bought from the Scottish giants in 2015 for £13m, has been one of the main talking points of the summer transfer window, with Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United all interested.

However, with Saints not willing to sell, some clubs have seemingly turned their attentions elsewhere, with United and Chelsea both buying different centre-back targets for huge sums.

Jose Mourinho’s side spent £31m on Victor Lindelof from Benfica, while the Stamford Bridge outfit have brought in Roma’s German international defender Antonio Rudiger for around £29m.

Liverpool have already apologised and publicly dropped all interest in Van Dijk, having been reported to the Premier League by Saints for an ‘illegal approach’.

But it seems Jurgen Klopp’s side still harbour a big interest in the Netherlands international, although Saints feel well-placed to withstand bids as long as Van Dijk doesn’t agitate for a move.

Saints have headed to Austria for a training camp which will conclude on Saturday with a friendly against St Gallen at FC Goldach’s Sportanlage Kellen ground in Switzerland.

Pellegrino, who is set to announce his backroom staff soon, will then take Saints to France later this month following a friendly at Brentford on July 22.

They will be based in Evian from Monday, July 24 and will play a friendly against Saint-Etienne the following Saturday.

The game will be played at Stade Municipal de Chambery with a kick-off time of 5pm BST.