We've all had some bad takes in our time, but possibly are none worse than this journalist's regarding Virgil van Dijk.While many knew he had the makings of a top defender, many people felt as if Liverpool overpaid for Van Dijk in 2017.The Dutch defender signed for Liverpool on this day four years ago, and has gone on to become one of Jurgen Klopp's best players.After Liverpool announced the signing of Van Dijk in 2017, Goal journalist Ronan Murphy took to Twitter to share his thoughts.Murphy said that Liverpool had overpaid for the "extremely overrated" Van Dijk, noting that the £75million fee paid was "astronomical".He didn't stop there though, as Murphy said that Liverpool could have bought Lewis Dunk for a fraction of the price, who would have done "a similar job".
To his credit, the journalist was able to admit that he got this one badly wrong, apologising to Liverpool's star man in a tweet this afternoon.
Murphy conceded that Van Dijk was "indeed worth the money" that Liverpool paid for him four years ago.
The journalist then promised that it "won't happen again", before again admitting that he'd made a "mistake".
In fairness to the journalist, while many people knew that Virgil was good, not many would have predicted that he'd go on to become the world's best defender.
The 30-year-old has been nothing short of a revelation for Liverpool since he joined, immediately transforming the team into one of Europe's best defensive sides.
The impact of Van Dijk was seen during the 2020/21 season while the defender was out for several months with an ACL tear.
While they may have also had Joe Gomez and Joel Matip out, Liverpool struggled badly without this dominating centre-back, only going to show just how good he actually is.
Van Dijk has now tested negative for COVID-19 and is free to play for Liverpool against Leicester tomorrow evening.