And Jude replied who is Naby?
Would break my heart if this ends in one of those stories…
‘… I really wanted to join Liverpool but at that time they could not pay the fee and could not offer CL football after that summer…’
Jude Bellingham in his retirement interview in 2035.
If Jude wants to come to us, he can tell that to Dortmund, and that will remove the notion of a bidding war.
They can get a very nice fee from us this summer when they sell a 20 year old, or about half the amount the following summer when they sell a 21 year old, or nothing the following summer, when a 22 year old leaves them.
IF (and this word is doing most of the lifting) Jude Bellingham has eyes for us, then we have a lot more leverage here. Dortmund can look at receiving:
€100M for a 20 year old who wants to come to us. Or
€50M for a 21 year old who wants to come to us. Or
€0 for a 22 year old who will come to us on a Bosman.
In the meantime, if it isn’t happening this summer and he sits tight, we can sign two of the likes of Kone, Ugarte, Thuram, Gravenberch and get our act together that way.
Obviously if Bellingham is umming and aaaahing on where he wants to go, our leverage is massively diminished, and we will likely renew the midfield without him.
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All this charm offensive. Will be embarrassing if we miss out on him - especially if he signs for another English club.
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Phwoar.
But in seriousness.
I actually don’t think CL football will play into it so much.
It really is down to fee and whether we meet their valuation.
With Touchemani we did everything we could and lost out because he wanted Madrid he has said this. I guess we will see if we can agree a deal with Dortmund that works.
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I think it’s a done deal and has been for a while.
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If he retires at 31, he probably had injuries for the rest of his career so we didn’t miss out. 
Mmmmm very nice…
Jude’s just listened to this and wants to emulate the number 1
It feels like one of those Worst Kept Secret moments but we can’t be sure until he’s in the shirt. A bit like how Thiago came to the club.
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It’s not charm offensive. We are just assuming it to be one.
Is no one else concerned by the miles in his legs already at such a young age?
Lovely to talk about him retiring as a red but given the number of games he’s played already and the way we like to run midfielders into the ground that could come before he turns 25!
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Meh, all those friendly pictures and posts are nothing compared to what Barca’s players sometimes used to do to get their transfer targets. Par example with Fabregas. Realistically, it’s a hard transfer to complete (even if we had a season like last) and I will be neither disappointed nor heartbroken if it doesn’t happen. It’s just reality. Our season saddens me more than if we can’t get Jude Belligham right now. He’d be great for us, but surely there’s also a point financially when you’d have to think “is it worth it, considering what we can spend” (which is questionable and nobody knows, which will also depend on what we qualify for). Surely there are other players out there that can be part of improving us for next season.
Was thinking something similar the other day. It’s inevitably going to catch up on him.
Not a problem for us to worry about, he will miss too many games here to accrue excessive mileage on his legs.
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Hopefully in the future we’ll have enough good midfielders to be able to rotate them…
Don’t worry we will sell him on just before his legs give up at 26.
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Absolutely! For me it has always been the game count. The fact he’s 19 means nothing to me. That’s not only in relation to how long I think his career will go but also in relation to the football quality he is playing at his age.
He’s played 192 games. Therefore I expect he has the tactical experience of a 192 game player. Not a 19yo. Which is why even Klopp’s comments about how ‘advanced for his age he is’ sends a mini shiver down my spine as I don’t necessarily agree with it.
As for his career length, who knows. But you’d imagine it will be at best 500 games at the very top before looking for a secondary club, or as in Milner’s case, accepting you and your body are a bit part player. If he wasn’t overplayed, say playing in 35 games a season which for our club would be underplayed! then thats a 10 year season at the next club he goes to. That’s if he stays healthy.
I think anybody counting on a 192 game player coming and adding 500 or so games on top of this total playing at a top tier football club, just because the player is 19, are setting themselves up for a tremendous disappointment.