As Virgil van Dijk watched Leicester City’s final goal in a 4-1 away win at Southampton hit the back of the net on Wednesday night, you couldn’t have blamed him for pondering what his life might be like right now if he had signed for Manchester City this summer instead of staying at St Mary’s.

In fact, judging by his distracted performance in that game, he may have also been pondering this before Leicester’s fourth goal went in.

But despite the Dutchman’s shaky form, his daydreams may yet become reality. Because Man City still reportedly want to sign him, and so do Liverpool.

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The Mirror claims the two north-west giants are set to engage in a “bidding war” for the Saints centre-back in January, having failed to prise him away from the south coast in August.

Despite City’s imperious form, manager Pep Guardiola is apparently “unconvinced about his current crop of defenders”. As for Liverpool’s current crop of defenders, everyone is unconvinced about them.

One man standing between Van Dijk and the top of the Premier League table, however, is Inigo Martinez. The 26-year-old Real Sociedad centre-back is also said to be on Guardiola’s radar, and he is likely to come cheaper than the £70m-rated Van Dijk (not that City are necessarily in the habit of looking at price tags).

Man Utd target Ozil and Willian

Another man who could be heading to the north-west soon is Mesut Ozil, who has been identified by Manchester United as the perfect replacement for Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Mirror).

Jose Mourinho must reportedly “trim his squad” if he wants to bring in the Arsenal contract rebel, whose imminent free agent status make him deceptively expensive due to the exorbitant salary he will command.

And it’s Mkhitaryan who is set to get trimmed, with the Red Devils hoping to get back most of the £30m they paid for the Armenian in summer 2016.

Ozil shouldn’t get his hopes up yet though, because Mourinho is also continuing to sniff around his old mate Willian.

The Mail says United have “made an enquiry” for the Chelsea midfielder, who recently stated his intention to stay at Stamford Bridge but is allegedly “growing frustrated” with the lack of opportunities afforded to him by manager Antonio Conte.

A man afforded even fewer opportunities by Conte is Michy Batshuayi, who the Sun says may soon be put out of his west London misery and sent to Monaco. The Belgian striker has apparently been offered as “bait” to the French champions in an attempt to lure £86m-rated winger Thomas Lemar to the Blues.

Elsewhere, Barcelona are keen on snapping up out-of-favour Man Utd utility man Daley Blind when his contract expires next summer (Sun), United are set to battle Juventus to sign Monaco utility man Fabinho at the end of the season (Talksport) and Valencia are considering a swoop for Arsenal’s forgotten man Theo Walcott (Mirror). If the Spanish side can turn Simone Zaza into one of Europe’s deadliest strikers, then there may be hope for Theo yet.