Jude Bellingham looks set to join Real Madrid or Manchester City when he eventually leaves Borussia Dortmund. Photo: Getty Images/Lars Baron
Much anguished at the end of Liverpool's interest in Jude Bellingham, the club solemnly left the card table now that the price for 2023 for England's great young talent has been revealed.
The fee that Borussia Dortmund is reportedly asking for is 150 million euros, of course depending on the wishes of the youngest person and the emerging market. He could stay in Germany for another year, in which case things could be different next summer if Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group get a new minority investor. Although competitors will also have a different picture.
Jurgen Klopp accepted the result with some grace, refusing, as always, to blame FSG. Jamie Carragher thinks otherwise, describing as misleading in this post the idea that Liverpool have just realized that Bellingham's fee is too high compared to the total costs they can spend on the refurbishment. He says the demise of the team's midfield was resolved too late and happened after signing contracts, especially Cody Gakpo, who didn't need to be prioritized.
Liverpool's problem is that Bellingham's fee just got too big and too fast; his World Cup performances and his overall development is too fast. Enzo Fernandes' £105m fee is the new benchmark Dortmund will point to when they finally agree to sell their English prodigy. The other will be the €140m deal they agreed with Barcelona six years earlier for Ousmane Dembele.
This is an incredibly talented footballer who could very well be the dominant figure of the next decade, and possibly all that could be. was predicted last summer. But Bellingham didn't sell last summer.
Dortmund then sold Erling Haaland to Manchester City and the Englishman was unavailable. Bellingham was then valued at 80 million euros, but this was not a figure that could be verified because there were no negotiations. Liverpool were trying to sign Monaco midfielder Aurélien Chouameni, for whom the whole package of fees, wages and other things was more competitive. The deal lasted until Kylian Mbappe extended his contract with Paris Saint-Germain, and then Real Madrid, excluded from this deal, came for Chuameni.
This seems to be the key point of the argument against the strategy that Liverpool pursued. Why then did they not sign an alternative midfielder in place of Chuameny who could propel them forward, keep their Champions League status for another year and put them on pole position on the Bellingham grid in the summer of 2023? The problem was that there was no alternative to Chuameni. There were other midfielders, but none were as good as the young Frenchman who has since advanced to the finals of the World Cup and played 36 matches for Real Madrid.
Liverpool's approach after the successes of Virgil Van Dijk and Alisson was to take the first choice, or otherwise wait for a new first choice to emerge. It is an imperfect strategy, but no less imperfect than many other elite recruitment strategies, where one wrong move can undermine the system. Having spent around £200m over the past 14 months on Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Fabio Carvalho and Gakpo, one could argue that Liverpool should have prioritized midfield. The tougher argument is that they should sign midfielders who, in their hiring analysis, are below the required standard.
New first options are emerging and they will surely fit every club that does not sign Bellingham . The market threatens to leave behind all but a few. Whatever the fears, the interest of state clubs such as City and PSG, as well as Real Madrid, Chelsea and possibly Manchester United, is exerting its inflationary pressure.
Being the best player on the market has always been a challenge for Liverpool, even in their days when they were kings of English football with record transfer fees in the seven figures. In 1981 they were contenders for the acquisition of Bryan Robson, who was then a little older than Bellingham now, but no less influential. Robson moved to United in October. That same year, Ronnie Whelan finally made his Liverpool debut, Steve Nichol arrived to wait for his chance and Ian Rush scored his first goal for the club. there will be only one player who will unlock the potential of the club, cannot be true. No serious recruiting can work this way and now Chuameni is gone and maybe Bellingham too, the challenge for anyone who missed out is to find the next one.
The 1996 FA Youth Cup Final, won by Liverpool in two legs against West Ham, featured Carragher, Michael Owen, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand, the latter of whom would attract continued interest from Anfield. When Ferdinand first became available in 2000 and then two years later when Leeds United collapsed, Liverpool were undervalued both times. As it turns out, less expensive signings from 1999 such as Vladimir Šmicer, Sami Hyypiä and Dietmar Hamann, as well as one homegrown full-back who grew superbly into a converted centre-back, were all part of the squad that conquered Europe in 2005.
No one knows exactly where Bellingham himself wants to go. Much has been said about his World Cup friendship with Trent Alexander-Arnold, but it seems like Aaron Ramsdale could very well be his closest England teammate and no one thinks he'll end up at Arsenal. Anyway, not yet. Camp Bellingham kept all this a closely guarded secret. There will be many clubs that would like to sign Bellingham but are not doing so. The only thing that can add to the disappointment is signing the wrong players.
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