Inside story : Sir Alex tells a story how Manchester United snubbed van Dijk to sign Victor Lindelof ,here is what really made them sign Lindelof.

 Virgil van Dijk reportedly knew Manchester

 United chose to sign Victor Lindelof over

 him in 2017 - meaning he was free to join

 Liverpool six months later.

The 30-year-old is now one of the 

best around and a valuable member of 

Jurgen Klopp's side.

Things could've been so different, however

. Charlie Austin was a teammate of van 

Dijk's during his time at St Mary's and he 

revealed an interesting chat he had with

 the Netherlands international.

"We were sat on the bench at Chelsea 

away and I asked him what was going 

on, I said surely United have been in 

for you?", Austin told talkSPORT.

"He told me, 'you know what Chaz, it 

was between me or Victor Lindelof, and 

they signed Lindelof.'

"I was gobsmacked, just the same as you.

"There was obviously talk he was going

 to go there in the summer, then they 

went for Lindelof instead."

Liverpool currently have a quadruple 

in their sights having already won the

 Carabao Cup.

They're in the FA Cup final, Champions

 League semi-finals and one point behind

 Manchester City in the Premier League.

Lindelof joined United from Benfica 

for £30 million months prior and has 

forged a decent career for himself at 

Old Trafford, given the club's struggles

 in recent years.

The Sweden captain regularly started 

under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar 

Solskjaer, with the latter settling on 

Lindelof  as Harry Maguire's preferred 

partner for two seasons.

Raphael Varane joined last summer and 

he's taken Lindelof's place next to captain

 Maguire. The former Real Madrid man 

has had his own injury issues however and

 Lindelof's managed to make 25 league 

appearances.

United are sixth in the Premier League 

and have to win all three of their remaining 

games to ensure they don't finish with their

 worst ever points tally.

Lindelof believes it's important to finish

 strongly ahead of new manager Erik ten 

Hag's arrival in the summer.

"I think it’s very, very important for ourselves

 to try to do that," he said in United's 

match programme.

"This season obviously hasn’t been good 

enough and of course us as players take 

responsibility for that. 

"We just want to try to finish this 

season strongly and try to win these

 remaining games."