Jude Bellingham Welcome to Liverpool…

[navbasi]

15 minutes ago, BeefStroganoff said:

You don't know that. Under Jurgen he could have thrived. Judging anyone at Chelsea is pointless, they are a complete and utter circus.

https://www.thescore.com/s/24927191
 

Circus indeed… this knobhead makes me glad that we have FSG!!!

[etho]

To be fair he isn't worth the fee requested at the moment, so it'll depend on whether city or United come in and are willing to pay it.

 

If he doesn't then he either stays at Dortmund or the price comes down 

[SasaS]

1 hour ago, Pidge said:

There are eight teams that have ever paid more than 100m euros. PSG, Atletico, Barca, Real, Man C, Man U, Chelsea and Juventus. 

 

Who do people think will really want to make Bellingham #2 or #3 on this list?

 

How many of these turned out good value:

 

 

 

 

Comforting to see we are not the only ones being regularly taken to the cleaners by Benfica.

[TheHowieLama]

28 minutes ago, BeefStroganoff said:

You don't know that. Under Jurgen he could have thrived. Judging anyone at Chelsea is pointless, they are a complete and utter circus.

 

So Mount is a top player? Klopp loves the lil fella.

[Daisy]

1 hour ago, Pidge said:

There are eight teams that have ever paid more than 100m euros. PSG, Atletico, Barca, Real, Man C, Man U, Chelsea and Juventus. 

 

Who do people think will really want to make Bellingham #2 or #3 on this list?

 

How many of these turned out good value:

 

 

I think there are two and one of those is really questionable (Bale's CL record saves him, just). Maybe Neymar was good value for commercial reasons? A couple might still get there. How many times did teams think it was going to make them dominant just to find out they had only signed a football player with all the faults football players have?

 

He is at the lower end of this list for me, at most. Only Newcastle would really be leveraged into that deal IMO, possibly Utd post-buyout.

 

Real Madrid have three top young CMs already. They need a forward who can be their focal point. They should be after Kane or Osmihen IMO.

 

I don't think anyone really has an issue with not blowing our whole budget on one player. 

 

Its the fact they told the world they were going after him and gave up on an entire season when it was never going to happen. 

[Pidge]

Just now, Daisy said:

 

I don't think anyone really has an issue with not blowing our whole budget on one player. 

 

Its the fact they told the world they were going after him and gave up on an entire season when it was never going to happen. 

That's fair enough, whatever the outcome of this summer it doesn't fix the mistakes made last year.

[Scott_M]

34 minutes ago, BeefStroganoff said:

You don't know that. Under Jurgen he could have thrived. Judging anyone at Chelsea is pointless, they are a complete and utter circus.

 

Great, thanks.

 

How is he doing for Germany and RBL?

[lifetime fan]

45 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

Anyone who thinks we should have matched the deal Chelsea put in place for Werner because of how it looked is mental.

 

Football has become far too much about how things look and who you can 'banter' and less about the right things. People are obsessed with the amount you spend or the what player gives you bigger kudos in the twitter stakes than whether you're signing the right players irrespective of cost.

Where has anyone said we should have matched the deal Chelsea put in place because of how it looked???

[beejay]

Might be wrong, but the word is that Jude wants to come back to Premiership. Girlfriend etc. It's not over yet 

[johnsusername]

5 minutes ago, beejay said:

Might be wrong, but the word is that Jude wants to come back to Premiership. Girlfriend etc. It's not over yet 

 

There's more chance that Bellingham ends up playing in the rugby union Premiership than playing for Liverpool. 

[navbasi]

26 minutes ago, beejay said:

Might be wrong, but the word is that Jude wants to come back to Premiership. Girlfriend etc. It's not over yet 

We’ve got more chance of signing his bird

[Barrington Womble]

2 hours ago, Denny Crane said:

Is this true from Pearce or is someone trolling. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave D]

3 hours ago, Pidge said:

There are eight teams that have ever paid more than 100m euros. PSG, Atletico, Barca, Real, Man C, Man U, Chelsea and Juventus. 

 

Who do people think will really want to make Bellingham #2 or #3 on this list?

 

How many of these turned out good value:

 

 

I think there are two and one of those is really questionable (Bale's CL record saves him, just). Maybe Neymar was good value for commercial reasons? A couple might still get there. How many times did teams think it was going to make them dominant just to find out they had only signed a football player with all the faults football players have?

 

He is at the lower end of this list for me, at most. Only Newcastle would really be leveraged into that deal IMO, possibly Utd post-buyout.

 

Real Madrid have three top young CMs already. They need a forward who can be their focal point. They should be after Kane or Osmihen IMO.

 

Good value from that list? 3 at best.

Sadly we are trying to be slightly rational in an increasingly irrational game which means we lose

[Creator Supreme]

44 minutes ago, navbasi said:

We’ve got more chance of signing his bird

She'd still do a better job in midfield than Keita!

[angie]

Anyone ever watched Bellingham? I’ve watched him about 5 times and every time I’ve seen him he wears a knee brace…anyone know why? I’d hate to pay £100million+ for a player and his knee goes after a half a season. Is the brace because of a past injury because I really don’t know much about him to know. Anyway, FSG OUT!!

[Reckoner]

Knee brace cunt

[El Dangerous]

He’s a big Stone Cold Steve Austin fan that’s all.

[TheHowieLama]

Not sure there has been a recent injury - think he just has a bum knee.

 

That said if you believe our current players have extraordinary miles on them this kid has played a SHITload of footy over the last 5 years.

[navbasi]

They could have at least done a medical and then pulled out. 

[navbasi]

FSG must give Liverpool fans a reason to believe after Jude Bellingham defeat

(James Pearce)

 

For Liverpool supporters stung by how this miserable season is playing out, the prospect of their club signing Jude Bellingham come the summer provided much-needed relief.

 

It was going to be the show of ambition they craved – proof Liverpool were serious about challenging for the biggest prizes once again by breaking their transfer record for the most gifted young midfielder in Europe.

 

Jurgen Klopp had made no secret of his admiration for the England international. Last July he said the “only problem” with Bellingham was that he wasn’t available for transfer then and after watching the 19-year-old light up the ensuing winter World Cup in Qatar, Klopp purred: “Everyone can see he is just exceptional.”

 

Yes, there was always going to be stiff competition for his signature given other suitors had considerably deeper pockets, but Liverpool felt like the perfect fit for a youngster who grew up idolising Steven Gerrard. He would have been the face of their midfield rebuild and potentially their talisman for the next decade.

 

Friendships had already been forged on international duty with Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who went with Bellingham to see American musician Chris Brown in concert last month. When asked about Bellingham’s future recently, Henderson joined the charm offensive: “If it ended up being Liverpool (he joins from current club Borussia Dortmund) that would be amazing. His potential is through the roof.”

 

That potential now looks set to be realised elsewhere. The Anfield hierarchy are adamant that, following extensive discussions, they are no longer in the race to sign Bellingham this summer.

 

Cynics will inevitably question whether this is merely a ploy to either get Dortmund to lower their price or that is being floated because Liverpool believe he has already decided to move to a rival club.

 

However, the reality is that it had become increasingly clear in recent weeks that Liverpool’s hopes of getting Bellingham were dwindling. The Athletic’s David Ornstein wrote last month about how the greater financial power of Manchester City and Real Madrid had put those clubs in much stronger positions to secure his services.

 

Liverpool admitting defeat in their pursuit of a player who has been their top target for so long has triggered understandable anger and frustration among the fanbase. The club’s owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has long been accused of not investing sufficiently in Klopp’s playing squad and this will add more fuel to that fire. Earlier this season, Klopp admitted there are occasions when he would like to “risk a bit more” in the transfer market.

 

When Liverpool didn’t pursue a Plan B in midfield last summer after missing out on France international Aurelien Tchouameni, who moved from Monaco to Real Madrid, the message was clear: they were sitting tight because the player they wanted wasn’t available at that time. There would be no compromise. The message was repeated in this year’s January window.

 

And now it finally appears possible to prise Bellingham away from Dortmund, they have opted against it. Why?

 

Senior Anfield sources insist they had reached a point where the deal “stopped making sense”. A transfer fee of around £130million ($162.1m), with wages and agents’ fees on top, would have taken up a vast chunk of Klopp’s overall budget for the next window.

 

And on top of that, Liverpool still had no guarantees Bellingham would definitely leave Dortmund this summer — or choose to go to Anfield if he did. The fear was that it would drag on into the summer and then if they then missed out on Bellingham, alternative targets such as Chelsea’s Mason Mount and Alexis Mac Allister of Brighton may have already been snapped up by rivals. Klopp wants the club’s business done early, so his full squad are together from when pre-season begins at the start of July.

 

Earlier this season, Liverpool had envisaged Bellingham being available for around £80million, but his play at the World Cup significantly lifted both his profile and price tag. However, the biggest shift in explaining why they have pulled out is the realisation of how much surgery Klopp’s squad needs before next season.

 

If Liverpool just needed Bellingham to become a major force again, it would be different, but the team’s glaring failings over the course of this season have laid bare the fact that four or five new faces are required. Klopp needs a minimum of two, ideally three, new midfielders, the back line also needs strengthening and Liverpool must decide whether to replace outgoing attacker Roberto Firmino.

 

In that climate, it was felt they simply couldn’t justify spending so much on one player, especially given their dwindling hopes of playing in next season’s Champions League. Just four wins in 13 league matches since the turn of the year has left them 12 points adrift of the top four with nine games to go.

 

Not being among Europe’s elite for the first time since 2016-17 would heavily dent the revenue streams of a club run by FSG on a self-sustaining business model. The owners don’t take money out of the club, but neither do they invest their own cash.

 

FSG has been searching for new investment over the past six months, but talks over the sale of a minority stake in the club remain ongoing. Klopp has been assured significant funds will be available in the next window, but it clearly isn’t going to be enough to buy Bellingham and carry out all the other improvements required too.

 

You can understand the logic of dropping out of the race at this juncture and at the same time bemoan a recruitment strategy that has left them needing to do so much in one window.

 

Take the misfiring midfield department, which has become such a glaring issue.

 

Yes, the scale of the drop-off by Henderson and Fabinho from the heights of last season couldn’t have been predicted, but the fitness issues of Thiago were well known. As was the erratic inconsistency of Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who both should have been moved on last summer. James Milner turned 37 in January, while youngsters Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott are still learning their trade.

 

Liverpool were crying out for an injection of energy and proven quality in midfield last summer. It didn’t arrive. They ended up panicking after injuries cut deep late in that window and paid a £4million loan fee for Juventus’ Arthur Melo, who has played just 13 minutes of football for them. The club badly misjudged what they had at their disposal, and that has cost them dear.

 

Thiago remains the only senior midfielder Liverpool have bought since Keita arrived from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2018.

 

If they had recruited more wisely last summer (most of their resources were spent on striker Darwin Nunez, who has had a mixed first season), they wouldn’t be outside the top four or needing to bring in so many new faces. They would have been in a much better place to both attract and afford Bellingham.

 

“Whatever we do next year will never be enough from people’s point of view and your point of view,” Klopp said before last weekend’s game against Arsenal. “But, yes, with smart recruitment we will improve, definitely. That’s the plan.”

 

All eyes will be on where Liverpool turn now. The pressure will be cranked up on the owners to deliver the backing required.

 

Signing Bellingham would have been a real statement of intent. Leaving the path clear for others to do so may be pragmatic, but it’s also deflating.

 

It shows both Liverpool’s financial limitations and the scale of the challenge facing Klopp this summer.

 

[an tha]

"Thiago remains the only senior midfielder Liverpool have bought since Keita arrived from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2018."

 

 

Absolutely criminal that.

[LFC 6 Times]

Actually cannot believe this story they’re spinning. It’s time to make it clear we want them out.

[TheDrowningMan]

Mention of the CL “hurting the revenue stream” should be enough by itself for anyone to want them gone given how routinely we’re outspent by non-CL clubs.

 

Forget an oil state or the Glazers and the riches they continue to put in front of every United manager, even an owner like David Sullivan or Daniel Levy would offer us a substantially higher chance of getting back to the top table under Klopp.

[Megadrive Man]

4 hours ago, Denny Crane said:

Is this true from Pearce or is someone trolling. 

 

 

 

If only they'd known that there was a world cup on this year?

 

I don't think the world cup has actually significantly increased his price tag!

 

It wasn't like he was Maradona in 86 single handily driving his nation to glory!

[Megadrive Man]

We can rule out Mac Alister then if we can't afford players that have seen their price tag go up on the back of the World cup.