Southampton have reported Liverpool to the Premier League for allegedly making an illegal approach to Virgil van Dijk.

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The south-coast club were furious to see stories on Monday that suggested Liverpool were in the driving seat to sign the defender this summer, in the face of interest from other leading clubs – namely Chelsea and Manchester City.

They argue that there is no way the stories could have been run unless Liverpool had spoken to Van Dijk and, thereby, put themselves in breach of Premier League rules over “tapping up”. Several of the stories contained the line that Van Dijk wanted to move to Anfield because of Jürgen Klopp’s involvement in his recruitment – which Southampton suggest adds up to an illegal approach. It is understood that the Dutchman’s preference is to move to Anfield.

Southampton have made it clear to the Premier League they have received no official approach from Liverpool for Van Dijk and, more generally, they have stressed the player has five years to run on his contract, meaning they are in a strong position regarding where he does play.

Liverpool are reportedly willing to pay a world-record sum for a defender – expected to be around £60m – to break Southampton’s resistance and they are also prepared to match City’s offer to Van Dijk of a contract worth around £200,000 a week. Van Dijk would become Liverpool’s record signing and highest-paid player should the deal go ahead. They declined to comment on Southampton’s accusations.

The league has written to Southampton and Liverpool to ask for their version of events. Liverpool have spent £96m on five Southampton players since the summer of 2014. In that transfer window they took Adam Lallana (£25m), Dejan Lovren (£20m) and Rickie Lambert (£4.5m). Nathaniel Clyne (£12.5m) and Sadio Mané (£34m) followed in the summers of 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Southampton’s position with their manager, Claude Puel, remains delicate and complicated given that he has all but left the club and they are actively pursuing a successor. Yet Saints will not confirm his departure until they have lined up the new man, who would have to represent an upgrade.

Puel, who arrived in June of last year, led Saints to the EFL Cup final, which they lost to Manchester United, and an eighth-placed finish in the league. But his style of football has frequently been derided as turgid, the team have struggled for goals and when the French manager was booed by the St Mary’s crowd on the final day of the season against Stoke City, the writing was on the wall.

Puel sat down with the board for an end-of-season review, which did not go well, and there have since been no messages of support for him from the hierarchy. He is away on holiday and has emerged as a target for the French club St-Étienne.

Southampton accept that Puel will be entitled to a pay-off on the final two years of his contract and they want a manager who is receptive to promoting players from the academy and with a vision for attractive, passing football.