Virgil van Dijk has spoken of his love for the club and Liverpool FC fans, making it clear that he intends to stay with the Reds beyond his contract expiring in the summer.

The 33-year-old moved from Southampton to Liverpool for £75m seven years ago this week and has won every major honor possible under Jurgen Klopp’s leadership.

In theory, Van Dijk is in a position to discuss leaving Anfield with a foreign club from next week, but everything points to him staying on Merseyside, not least his recent comments.

“I love the club, the club loves me,” he told Amazon Prime (via The times).

“I love the fans, the fans love me and that is a very good basis to be successful. In my opinion, I can play at least at the highest level for another three or four years. We’ll see what the future brings.”

Of the three players out of contract, Van Dijk was always considered the most likely to stay in the eyes of most fans, and Mohamed Salah also now seems likely to stay after also expressing his desire to stay at the club to stay.

Van Dijk, who is now the club’s captain, works alongside his compatriot Arne Slot and aims to become the first Dutchman to win the Premier League title as captain.

“It’s not about me, but I would like to be the first (Dutch player),” Van Dijk added. “I think it’s there. We work as a team to achieve this.”

“Very likely” that Van Dijk and Salah will stay

Meanwhile, Dharmesh Sheth, a Sky Sports journalist, expressed the view that “at the moment it is very likely that Salah and Van Dijk will stay.”

On Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sheth added: “I’m not saying Alexander-Arnold won’t stay. It’s just that his case wasn’t made as public as Salah and Van Dijk’s.”

There appears to be growing confidence that both Salah and Van Dijk will sign contract extensions, which in turn could help convince Alexander-Arnold that his future at Anfield is best when he works with the best in the world and further expanded his trophy collection and legacy at the club.