Warnock: Crystal Palace missed a good opportunity to sign Van Dijk for 4 million pounds

On August 3, 76-year-old England coach Warnock disclosed a little-known transfer story in an interview with the Guardian: while coaching Crystal Palace, he missed the excellent opportunity to sign Van Dijk.

At that time, Warnock urgently needed to introduce a central defender for Crystal Palace, so he sent his assistant Ronnie Jepsen to Scotland for inspection. After returning, Jepsson reported to him excitedly and found a player with outstanding strength who could earn it for only about £4 million. When Warnock heard this, he immediately informed the Crystal Palace management, that is, chairman Steve Parrish. Parrish said it would take 24 hours to consider and asked the data analytics team to evaluate. But the next day, Parrish told Warnock that the club did not intend to advance the deal because the data showed that the player's speed was not up to standard. Warnock argued: "He may not look fast, because he doesn't have enough space to play in the Scottish arena. He will definitely be fine if he needs to sprint." But in the end, Crystal Palace gave up the opportunity to sign Van Dijk for 4 million pounds.

Later, when asked whether a player as great as Beckenbauer would be disapproved because of the data, Warnock sighed: "Yes, maybe Beckenbauer would be ignored in front of the data and could only play amateur game." Van Dijk eventually transferred to Southampton for 13 million pounds. A few years later, Warnock led Cardiff City to the Premier League and met Van Dijk against Liverpool. Van Dijk smiled and said to him, "Mr. Warnock, you could have signed me." Warnock responded humorously, "I bet you must be glad you were not signed by us at that time." The two looked at each other and laughed. Warnock also used this to criticize the current transfer model, saying that the coach has become a trainer to a large extent and relies on the scout team to pick players, while data analysts cannot understand key traits such as the player's personality. For example, when he was in Middlesbrough, the club signed a left-back based on data. He only observed for five minutes and concluded that the player would not defend, even if the data showed that his steals and headers were excellent. Warnock's words reveal the contradiction between data and actual investigation in modern football transfers, and also make Crystal Palace miss Van Dijk, adding even more regrets.