Any centre-back is going to be worse than the best centre-back in the World to be fair. Replacing Van Dijk (you can't really, not like-for-like at least) is never going to be an easy task. I hope our analytics and recruitment department can find someone on the cusp of breaking through mind - even at Celtic it was obvious to many that Van Dijk could be brilliant and it'd be nice if we nabbed an exciting player before we had to buy them at an inflated fee from a Portuguese side.
As to failing to qualify for the Champion's League, it's simply not in the interest of the owners to do that. They want the club generating as much money as possible and the revenues that come with European footie will always be a part of that plan - which means keeping the squad at a high level.
We'll likely continue to have windows where we come to the end and say "could have used a centre-back this window" or "really should have bought a deep-lying mid for the upcoming season" but I don't foresee the squad being allowed to rot - there's a reason we pay (roughly) Ł850k-per-week collectively on our 6 forwards for example.
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