Mauricio Pellegrino reveals how Southampton plan to spend the £75m Virgil van Dijk transfer fee

Van Dijk became the most expensive defender in history on Wednesday and Pellegrino plans to reinvest to bolster the Saints squad

Southampton are set to re-invest the £75m they received for Virgil van Dijk (Getty)

Mauricio Pellegrino hopes to sign at least two new players with the money banked from the £75m sale of Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool.

Van Dijk became the most expensive defender in history on Wednesday, with the fee eclipsing the £54million paid by Manchester City for full-back Kyle Walker.

The Holland centre-back handed in a transfer request during the summer as talk of Jurgen Klopp's interest swelled, and Pellegrino insists his exit is smart business for Southampton.

"I would like to bring in a couple of players minimum and we have to work for this. We have been talking about the couple of targets that we've got," Pellegrino said. "Maybe we change one player for two players or three players with this money and this has to be the positive target.

"We have to analyse this situation and this is good personally for him and will be positive if we reinvest in our good targets for the future. Sometimes at this level, Southampton is impossible to bring in players for £80million or £50million but maybe for us that can mean in the future a couple of good players.

"The question of whether the sale is a good deal is more for our board, but from outside of the business plan I think so. Now the deal is done and will be positive for the club and Virgil and we can reinvest this money in our squad to try to be stronger and this is everything.

"We have got our targets and have to look forward to pushing on and trying to improve our squad. Now the Virgil deal is done, my best wishes for him, but it has to be a positive impact to reinvest, a good decision for the future."