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Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Virgil van Dijk are targets for both Real Madrid and Barcelona


Jurgen Klopp and Virgil van Dijk are wanted men (Picture: Getty Images)

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and defender Virgil van Dijk are both targets for Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, according to reports in Spain.

Real and Barca are both considering double swoops for the German boss and the Dutch defender, according to AS via the Star, in what would be seismic swoops for European football.

Both La Liga sides have made disappointing starts to their league seasons, with neither managing more than two wins from their opening four games and both outside of the top two in the early-season table.

There is pressure on Ernesto Valverde at the Nou Camp and Zinedine Zidane at the Santiago Bernabeu to improve results, and failure to win domestic or European honours this campaign could see either of them out of work next summer.

Klopp and Van Dijk have had huge impacts at Liverpool (Picture: Getty Images)

Liverpool do not want to see Klopp or Van Dijk leave and it would take a monumental offer from either Spanish side to get the Reds to even consider accepting.

Klopp is under contract until 2022 at Anfield and has always been clear about his intention to see out that deal, but potentially leave after it comes to an end.

Van Dijk only agreed a mammoth new contract with Liverpool earlier this month, committing to a six-year deal that keeps him at the club till 2025.

Getting the German and the Dutchman out of those contracts next year would take a monumental financial investment from Real or Barca.

Klopp and Van Dijk’s stocks continue to rise with an impressive start to the season which has seen them win all five of their Premier League games and sit top of the table.

A 3-1 win over Newcastle on Saturday has given them a five-point lead already and Klopp spoke of his team’s need to keep up their ‘intense’ performances.

‘If we are playing our football, if we use our potential, if we have a top attitude then we are a difficult team to play against, that is what we all created together here, together with the crowd, it is a really difficult place to come,’ said Klopp.

‘That is why we had the results we had – it is not one reason or two or three but it is still difficult, it is really difficult.

‘We are obviously different to other really top teams because we need intensity and that is exactly when we stepped up intensity wise.

‘When we didn’t pass the ball around, and they (Newcastle) are always in the right place in their formation so we had to speed it up, we knew it before the game but in the game the boys needed a bit of time to do that and when they did it, they did it immediately and it looks immediately different.’

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