Only three players in the Premier League have the ability, when at their awesome best, to make everyone else on the pitch look like immature creatures, toddlers trying and failing to compete with giants. Two of those players are on the wane – Yaya Touré and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – but the other should be approaching his prime. If Liverpool sign Virgil van Dijk they will be making the ultimate upgrade to their team.
On one level it could be argued that to splurge £60m or thereabouts on any player is to blare a huge scouting or coaching failure, since a really savvy club might be able find or develop a less obvious solution. But in terms of forking out for a surefire success, there is no better signing than Van Dijk that Jürgen Klopp could make to improve his rickety defence, no single purchase that could demonstrate more clearly Liverpool’s determination to clamber back atop that long-vacated perch.
Related: Southampton report Liverpool to Premier League over Virgil van Dijk approach
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