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Warnock returned to Crystal Palace on 27 August 2014 and was in the market for a new centre-back in the final few days of the summer window.
The 69-year-old manager had recommended that Palace make a £6m move for Van Dijk, then at Celtic, but the chief scout at the time claimed he lacked the pace to adjust to the Premier League.
Crystal Palace will live to regret not making a move after Southampton bought him for £13m the following summer and this week sold him to Liverpool for £75m, a world record fee for a defender.
"At centre-half I was looking at Van Dijk [when I was in charge at Crystal Palace],” Warnock said.
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Virgil van Dijk and seven other Southampton players who signed for Liverpool
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“I suggested we buy him for £6m at the time and the chief scout said he wasn't quick enough”
Neil Warnock
“I suggested we buy him for £6m at the time and the chief scout said he wasn't quick enough and didn't see him stepping up [from the Scottish league] to the level we were looking for.
"I hope he's watching this morning that chief scout, £75m!
"You've got to be lucky with transfers when you're a manager, you've got to hope that when you want a player you can actually go and get him rather than go through all the rigmarole.
“But it made me smile in the morning when I saw that."