In my book, there is a 99% chance that he’ll join Abu Dhabi or another club in that ilk. Haaland has shown how it gets done in terms of personal advantages, and there is absolutely no reason to think that another extremely good, yet overhyped young player won’t follow suit.
Forget his potential transfer fee for a moment (even though it will be eye-watering): his wages will be astronomical, comparable to Haaland’s.
And neither Klopp nor fsg want to play that game, rightly so imo.
Ergo: forget this player, he won’t play for us. Klopp and co will probably look for a player like Caicedo. Or they’ll take a player out of their hat whom we haven’t even heard of yet. I’m totally comfortable with that approach.
Except for the fact that there could be a host of reasons that he wouldn’t want to follow suit? Like preferring to play for an institution in the sport instead of a sportwashing front, or getting more playing time at LFC, or wanting to play for Klopp instead of Guardiola.
If it comes down strictly to money, Bellingham will go elsewhere. If he has other considerations in mind, we have a real chance.
In theory, you’re right. But experience shows that 99% of players follow the money. I’m not saying that it is out of the question that he’ll join us, but the chance is minimal imo.
I always find it amazing that people shit the bed over this kind of posturing. Dortmund makes it clear they want €150m for Bellingham. Loads of fans go ‘Right, move on. He isn’t coming Liverpool won’t pay that’, while forgetting it’s only about a year ago that Dortmund’s €120m demand for Sancho ended up as a deal worth about €80m.
Well you better brace yourself because there’s plenty more to come.
Spearing was actually 1 of my favourite players back in the day, very happy he’s back part of our developmental team or whatever the fuck he’s here to do.
But even if you knock a third off their “posturing price” that’s still €100m.
Then consider the summer before they set their price for Sancho and despite United trying, Dortmund didn’t flinch. The price came down the following year as he hit two years left on his deal and Dortmund knew they couldn’t afford to extend that. Currently Dortmund seem to have a degree of belief they can get Bellingham to sign a new deal.
It’s the same club but not the same situation at all. And he’ll have his pick of clubs, all with deep pockets and promises of making him a global star in a trophy winning machine. Even if he wants to come here, we’ve still got to pony up a huge wedge of cash. If we can’t/won’t then it’s not likely he’ll sit at Dortmund waiting for us to find the money or his price to come down with the likes of City and Chelsea promising him the earth.
Yep. A double pivot would likely mean a switch to 4-2-3-1. I know Klopp has been a 4-3-3 man and it has served us very well, but I am offering the viewpoint that a switch to 4-2-3-1 might be warranted.
I say this both on the quantity of quality attacking players we have, and also on the injury problems and availability of the midfielders we have.
Further, I think it is easier to recruit for a double pivot, and it might also help us get more life of Henderson, Thiago and Fabinho moving forward.
But yes, it would mean a change from 4-3-3, so is probably not likely.
Interestingly, Klopp’s telling of the situation was he gave up on it with us more because of the forwards than the midfielders. There has obviously been a lot of turnover since then and so with a largely different forward line now that is maybe another reason to revisit it.
Yeah but the way Man Utd do business by telling everyone who they will sign and then trying to do the deals it’s obvious clubs would balk at that approach.
Did we had a short glimpse of the 4-2-3-1 when we sub Firmino and Nunez in during the Ajax match? With Thiago and Fabinho as the pivot and Firmino and Salah and Diaz supporting Nunez as the striker.
He might come to us and he might not. But I think we can say that with the €150m news coming out of Dortmund, it flies in the face of us ever having some sort of gentleman’s agreement with Dortmund as it has been alluded to on here.
He’ll go to the club that offers the best deal for both Dortmund and Jude.