On Bale, Madrid treated him like shit and he was fully within his rights to see out his contract.
At the same time during what should have been his peak years he was playing in the reserves or on the golf course. A terrible waste of his talent.
Madrid absolutely in the wrong, but he only stayed for the money.
He was a once in a generation player. Should have been considered a legend by fans of a club. Instead will be remembered as a talented player.
Probably the best player coming out from Wales for a long time now.
From a sporting point of view, understand what you mean. But if you have a club who dumps their players like trash and the total opposite of how we treat players under Klopp, then you will get these superstars who will say, ok since you behave like trash, I gonna fuck it and piss you guys off too by refusing to leave and taking the millions for doing nothing. There are reasons why, by and large, even players who know they don’t have a future under Klopp in Liverpool, almost always leave us on good terms, will full respect for the club. I would say the club’s behaviour in seeing players as humans, not just an item, contribute as much as how Real’s behaviour make arseholes out of players.
No difference to Ronaldo imo. He was past his best and needed to get used to playing a bit part role.
Anyway…back to Bellingham. Any bromance updates?
Nope so far it has always been Jude + Hendo or Jude + TAA. Heard Klopp has given instructions to both of them to now bring the bromance up a notch by going together for a 3 way.
I don’t think he’ll be too bothered by that tbh. He enjoys that status amongst Wales fans , and that’s clearly more important to him.
His family are reds, from what I understand.
The little advantage we do have is that we can make Bellingham already our main target of the summer. Real and City probably have to think a bit more if they really need him right here right now. Dortmund are also 6th and who knows what they even achieve this season. Us also, we have to improve and try get that top 4 status back. I’m really curious what would’ve happened with Nunez last summer if we ended up paying big money for Tchouameni. Last summer we had a lower net spend than we know to go for under FSG. We don’t have much to sell now, though who knows if something like selling Fabinho happens. That’s unlikely, but not impossible. Could be someone else. I think we’re seriously working things out to win this battle.
The thing that will trump all others in his final decision…
Jurgen might well retire from football in 3years time… when is Jude ever going to get the chance again to work alongside the greatest manager of his generation if he doesn’t make the move now… as in January even… why waste a moment :0)
The only issue with going all in on Jude is if it leaves us with enough for at least one more top quality mid , in January at that. As stated we don’t have much in the way to sell off atm but we also haven’t spent a lot recently. If Caicedo can be done in January, Jude in the summer and Morton back in also I think the mid is set. The following summer a striker and centre back.
I wouldn’t have wanted the club to pay £ 100m for him when he was 19, that’s for sure. With the benefit of hindsight, you could say that it would have been worth it, but we haven’t that benefit regarding Bellingham. He could injure himself very badly as soon as he sets foot at Liverpool, and become the new Harry Kewell. Or underperform and never become our new Steven Gerrard.
But beyond that, the folly has to stop at some point. 100m for transferring a football player and then paying him God knows how much in wages, just so we can say that we beat Abu Dhabi to his signature? Sheesh… 
Nunez cost us already way too much, but at least his wages are hopefully realistic, and performance-related.
Let Abu Dhabi have that lad for 150m or whatever they are ready to pay, and let us concentrate on what the club has done best in recent years: developing home talents, or bringing talents to the club before they reach astronomic fees, and developing them. The moves for Robertson, Trent, Gomez, Matip, Gini, Salah, Mané, Bobby, Divock, Minamino all followed that pattern, and Carvalho and Elliot are the latest examples of this approach. In some cases, you get world-beaters, or they become valuable squad players. In some cases, you have duds as well, but at least, they don’t come too expensive.
That ‘reasonable’ approach has allowed us to be the club pushing Abu Dhabi all the way in the last years, despite their limitless ability to buy players. I say that we should keep it like that, and not play va-banque on the latest super-talent.
We were prepared to go as high as Real went for Tchouameni. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if we went similar or a bit higher for Bellingham.
That could happen to anybody, and it’s impossible to predict.
It certainly isn’t a reason not to sign a player.
I get what you are saying, but the strategy we’ve had success with has always allowed us to go big when necessary.
We broke the world records for a defender and a goalkeeper. And we can do that because we’re getting world class players around them on peanuts. Joel, Gomez, Robbo, Kelleher and Trent cost a combined £11.5m. That gives you the freedom to drop £75m on Virgil.
If we sign Bellingham for circa £100m, that isn’t much different to what we put on Van Dijk, adjusted for crazy footy inflation. And around him he’ll have players like Elliott, Carvalho, Jones and Bajcetic who cost very little. Every the 20m for Thiago was a snip compared to his worth.
It’s true that players could do their ACL in the first training session, but I think clubs carry insurance to mitigate against this.
Of course, but that’s where prudence sets in. If your 100m player (with the wages to go with it) becomes the new Kewell, it will hurt you badly as a club, because your finances will be heavily impacted for years.
Unless you are Abu Dhabi of course, in that case, it doesn’t matter as you can instantly set out another 100m for the next talent.
I’d be interested to know how that works. Do insurances pay the full wages for instance, as long as the player is injured?
To be honest, it’s more the wages I’m concerned about. If you have to write off 100m, it’s a hard blow, but it can be weathered. We have done it with Keita for instance, who returned only a fraction of the 60m we laid out for him, in sporting terms.
But the guy we are talking about here will command monstrous wages, because all oil-clubs are in for him as well, ready to offer him whatever he wants. That’s where it could hurt us to no end if we ‘push out the boat’ and he doesn’t become the next generational superstar for whatever reason.
That’s the risk you take as a football club and a risk that comes with being part of management/ownership, I don’t think FSG and Klopp are going to be sitting around a table together thinking pessimistically…they’ll be talking about his potential, what he’s shown at major tournaments, what additions he would bring to the side etc.
Whilst spending big and it not paying out would hurt us, also missing out and seeing us fall down the competition ladder would hurt us even more.
And he’d give up on 100-120k a week because of the romantic notion of going to LFC because his family are reds? No way.
Let’s stop being too romantic and remember that for an ambitious football player, trophies and money are paramount, as well as the prospect to play in a team allowing him to become still a better player.
Let’s face the cold hard facts:
we think that Klopp is the best coach around, but many in the football world have that bald Catalan cunt as the best one. Wrongly in my opinion, but that’s my biased Liverpool supporter opinion. Abu Dhabi haven’t only bottomless pockets, but the club is also very well set up in terms of infrastructure etc. At least as well as ours.
Major trophies are almost a foregone conclusion if he joins Abu Dhabi, the same thing can’t be said from us unfortunately. We must first focus on qualifying for the next CL before anything else.
as for the money, well… 
Maybe Bellingham is the one among a ten-thousand exception. We’ll see.
Guess if you’re in the no it won’t happen/shouldn’t happen camp, and it doesn’t, you’re less pissed off about it all.
I’m all in on Jude - I’ll be fuming if we don’t get him now.