There is another scenario here.
We are concerned that being publicly in the race for Bellingham at somewhere around 100-120m, along with reports that we are gearing up for a big summer, is leading to clubs quoting inflated prices for players we are interested in, on the assumption that we have a huge warchest.
It serves a purpose to us to ‘drop out of the race’ for Bellingham pleading poverty. Dortmund and Bellingham are fully aware what is going on.
For all you know there has been a verbal agreement with Bellingham and his parents for a while, and this has been the reason why we have elected to wait until Dortmund are prepared to sell.
I find it hard to believe we would ignore midfield this long on the off chance of signing Jude. It feels like we have had encouragement to wait for him, and certainly haven’t balked at the idea of paying 100m plus.
To be perfectly honest I’ve got no real opinion on whether Bellingham is the player we need etc.
My only real concern is that he becomes our “all eggs in one basket” solution. To me that is a scenario we need to avoid and of course I’ve absolutely zero evidence to back that concern.
I’m quite relieved to tell the truth. Imagine spunking £135m on one player to the detriment of the rest of the team , and then watch him go and do his anterior cruciate ligament in his first game.
Because knowing our luck that’s exactly what would happen.
I can assure you I’m very calm, I won’t be losing a seconds sleep over this because when it’s all said and done it always come back round to money and it’s been pretty apparent for a decade under these owners what we can and can’t stretch for.
I could’ve told you start of last season we wouldn’t be signing him…we have nothing to bargain with other than inviting his parents over for tea and biscuits and sweet talking them into persuading “what’s best” for their son which btw has never been an instigator in any deal happening.
It depends who is more motivated though doesn’t it.
Dortmund haven’t put him up for sale. This summer probably is the best time for them to cash in but in your analogy we’ve basically wandered up to someone who has a really nice house that we’ve been eyeing up for a year and said we’d be interested in buying it. They’re open to selling but want it to be worth their while so they price it high knowing you’re not the only one asking.
Now you could walk away but the other folk who have also enquired about it have far deeper pockets than you so they think they’ll get closer to what they want from one of them. You doing a fake walk away doesn’t really bother them. You want it, this is the price and if you don’t want to pay that, fine we’ll sell it to someone else or we’ll just keep it for another year and then sell it next year for something closer to market value.
The only thing here is the house doesn’t have a say in who gets to buy it but Bellingham does.
Ultimately, Dortmund hold the cards unless Jude makes a fuss. They might have come down on their price for Sancho but it took a year for them to budge. With two years to go on his deal, they wanted more than £100m. The summer before entering his final year they set the price at £85m and ended up selling him for £73m.
This is Jude’s “£100+m” summer. Dortmund know they’ll get a good whack for him next summer if needs be and would get another season of him playing for them. We however can’t wait another year for them to drop their price. Unless he has his heart set on us or we’re willing to meet close to their valuation then we’re screwed.
Good point, hence the Club thinking that would have made the major difference rather than a larger wad of cash than normal is pretty poor planning. If they really wanted him, which it seems we did, we should have pushed the boat out further when the end price would probably have still been what is reasonable in the world of football transfers. It’s entirely plausible that in the absence of competition his desire for LFC could then have been one of the deciding factors.
We’ve been great in the transfer market over recent years but we’ve definitely been caught with our pants down on more than one occasion as well.
Do you really believe that?
I think what annoys me about you is the fatalism expressed as deeply unfunny gallows humour. It’s not enough for you that we might not get Jude - what becomes then is the assumption that we’ll end up with a couple of shit lads on loan. As if deciding that a rump steak is a bit pricey means that you have to settle for a tin of beans.
But this really crosses the line.
Do you actually think there is not a pitch that Liverpool can make to Jude Bellingham? This one of the biggest football clubs on the planet, recent league titles winners and have made three out of the last five European Cup finals?There is nothing we can point to about Liverpool Football Club that would be appealing to a young lad?
I mean, for fucks sake. Why are you even here?
Things change quickly in football, though I don’t know if we were ever in the driving seat to get this done. Among the few clubs in a certain period, yeah probably.
I can believe that the player would be open, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to reject everyone else and wait for us. It’s only one part of the deal. Whether he moves in 2023 or 2024.
This deal is too heavy for us right now. Could easily have been so even with a top successful season, let alone with the crap one we’re having.
We don’t have to invent or imagine 50 other theories to keep some hopes up. We have to move away from this “but it was written in the stars”. Not the first, not the last.
Main thing is we buy the right players. As always, but this summer especially, with the situation we’re in.
That’s actually been the case since last year, at least. (Allegedly)
I’m still backing the club when they evaluate how far they can really go. We are more relaxed as fans and can allow to say “ah, f*ck it, pay x amount more, pay what it takes”.
Maybe another time in the future, under different owners or whatever, we could do these kind of deals more often.
Surely there are a lot of very good transfers for us between failing to attract Tchouameni, missing out on a huge deal like Bellingham and doing almost nothing.
This is the main thing for us. I cannot be disappointed or dramatize if Real beats us in a battle for a player or if 22/23 Liverpool can’t get Bellingham over the line.
Unfortunately, it’s wrong place, wrong time for Liverpool and Bellingham. We will go onto other things, he will go onto other things. Maybe we meet again at some point in the future. Right now, makes no sense thinking about it.
But I can be disappointed with our current situation and now we have to get the next best possible deals.
They’ve done it before on other players we did ultimately sign, so i wouldnt take this at face value yet.
That’s the nub of it really.
To go back to the house analogy, it was entirely possible that while we were making a big show of walking away, someone else with more money comes in and offers the asking price. That’s a risk you have to take.
The biggest factor in this is Bellingham. I still think he will decide where he goes. If Man City slap £135m cash down, Dortmund would accept it, but he would have to agree to it as well.
Personally I don’t really see why a player who isn’t anything but a mercenary would decide to move to a club with 100+ counts of cheating currently hanging around their necks.
He could decide where he goes between a few clubs, but that could be limited to the offers Dortmund accepts. Right now or at least while there is no clause.
Michael Owen wanted to move to us when he was leaving Real. He didn’t because we couldn’t or wouldn’t (doesn’t really matter which) pay what Real wanted.
Players are still moving to City so I don’t see how that putting them off. Until we see it or hear players rejecting them beacuse of that…
If so why are you interested in playing for those wankers with no proper history… 
Ruled out or ruled in ?
I remember when we denied interest in signing Alisson for big money, a month or so before we did.
For me, our statement is odd - since when does a club, in April, publicly rule themselves OUT of signing a player? What possible reason could there be for doing so, unless it’s a bargaining tactic.
I’m starting to believe it’s accurate in that we won’t pay that much for Bellingham or get involved in an auction, so it’s not an outright lie. However, by doing it so publicly I think we’re rolling the dice a bit in hoping Bellingham is that desperate to join us that he’ll put pressure on Dortmund to reduce the asking price and/or tell them he’ll just see out his contract and move for a free when he’s 21 - at his age that’s hardly much of a sacrifice if he gets the move he wants.
It’s probably a bit of a hail mary move as it’s very possible our bluff will be called, and he’ll end up at RM or whatever for £150m, but if we don’t intend to get involved in that price, it’s probably our only move left.
Tl;dr don’t give up on Bellingham yet… it’s probably unlikely but I very much doubt we’ve completely written it off yet
It’s not a great analogy.
Owen had to move that summer, because he wasn’t playing football and his England place was under threat. Rafa didn’t want him.
Bellingham is a nailed on regular starter for both Dortmund and England, and will remain so if he doesn’t move. He has all the cards. Michael Owen had a shit hand.
We haven’t seen that play out yet.
The charges were only levelled at City in February. There hasn’t been a transfer window since the charges were brought, and they didn’t buy anyone in January anyway. Haaland was their last signing.
They will sign players, but it might get a bit trickier for them. Some players obviously won’t give a shit, but some will swerve them, and plenty will be looking for cast iron escape clauses in the event of sanctions.
And for all you know there is no agreement and these stories are entirely true. I guess it’s what you want to believe given we’re all somewhat in the dark.
But we need more than just him and £100m or something in that ballpark would be a huge chunk of whatever money we can afford or be willing to spend.
As I said elsewhere, Dortmund don’t need to sell him now anyway. They know they either get silly money this summer or a lower but still silly fee for him next summer. Happened with Sancho who seemed to be pretty set on going to United and United seemed pretty set on him but weren’t willing to pay what Dortmund wanted with two years left on his deal still.
We can’t wait another 12 months so unless there is some agreement and he starts kicking up a fuss then I don’t see him as a viable option. We’ve too great a need for reinforcements this summer to risk banking on getting this done and it dragging on whilst possible targets go elsewhere.