Yeah, that’s us have a two year love fest with Bellingham. I’m talking about the club.
We’ve obviously been interested a long time, but amidst that there has been fans and clickbait journo’s pulling each other off, and whipping this up to dizzying proportions.
Stop what. It’s fairly obvious we’ve been interested in him, I’m not disputing that.
But a lot of the noise that has led us to where we are now - like, in a state of grieving, anger, resentment - has been led by its reliability to drive clicks from easily whipped up Liverpool fans.
I just don’t think it’s fair to look at the totality of the noise around Bellingham and conclude that’s all the clubs fault.
How does the song go? You do it to yourself, you do. And that’s what really hurts…
This isn’t a normal situation though. This is a player the fans have been having wet dreams over for 2 years even though 75% of them haven’t seen him play outside the national team. Knowing that almost the entire fanbase is blaming our season on the midfield, you can see where they’d want to release this information to at least explain why they won’t spend £130m on a single player. The explanation being that we need a number of players and not just 1.
Having said that, why the timing now during the season?
I know, but, when I saw Hendo in the bath with Jude and then Jude with Trent at a concert, I thought maybe it was a good sign from the football gods, that he is coming to our club. I always get sucked in to the media circus and also this thread made me hope too 
.
Whichever club who gets Jude is going to be one lucky bugger 
Wouldn’t it be nicer if it was like the old days when you learned we were interested in a player when they signed and you read it in the newspaper.
Those were never actually the old days. Way before the internet was a meaningful thing, the red tops did little else with sports than stoke transfer speculation. I remember sitting in the 6th form common room with some friends throwing a Daily Mirror across the room over the revelation that Utd were going to beat Liverpool to signing Collymore
And I never said it was ALL the clubs fault. I said they have very clearly participated in this, and that has understandably given it more steam. They can choose how they respond, but simply walking away and gaslighting fans into acting like there is nothing to see is not a great move.
Nah probably still finish about 8th.
I’m not sure.
I think it’s been obvious that we’re interested - I mean, why wouldn’t we be? He’s fucking brilliant, a Liverpool fan, best mates with Trent, mentored by Hendo, we need a midfielder, we tried to get him before he went to Dortmund, and seems to be motivated by what we can offer him. It’s about the easiest potential transfer in the world to put 2 and 2 together on. The club don’t really have to do a great deal to fuel that fire of speculation.
I’m sure that there has been positive encouragement given to the local press, and some off the record, but not really off the record, briefing going on, but a lot of this speculation has been driven to fever pitch by the industry for football clicks and fans hunger for any morsel thrown out there.
The club aren’t putting photos out there of Trent and Jude on nights out and using that to fuel click bait articles on why this means it’s a done deal. They aren’t responsible for chancers like IndyKalia whipping up gullible Twitter users with information so vague and non-committal it reads like a Barnum statement.
I think that’s exactly what they can do. They don’t have to gaslight fans by pretending we were never interested, but they don’t have to provide this kind of update. They can just quietly move on. They don’t have to put anything out there saying they are or aren’t interested in any player.
As I said before I think unless this is a message to Dortmund and part of a Bellingham plan (or maybe ‘gambit’ might be a better word), the club have absolutely nothing to gain from briefing that we have dropped our interest, but grief, anger and negativity
Yeah, Limescouse is being a bit of a drama queen here. Gaslighting? Using psychological methods into questioning your own sanity or powers of ressoning or memory? Hehehe ridiculous.
He might still come, he might not. Who cares. Plenty more fish in the sea. For once, I agree with Zoran’s brief comment, it’s more important we get the right players/ combination for midfield.
the more I see on social media, the more I’ve realized it’s all about Marketing, speculation and monetization. may as well treat footballers in the same view at the stock market… whatever is the flavor of the month gets the most news. until they’re not longer news.
Nobody gives a shit if they’re presenting facts anymore… it’s all just opinions now. Nobody links to FACTS anymore, it’s all convoluted with bullshit phrases like “have learned that” or “sources say”, etc etc.
Steering far clear of the circus of the transfer market these days.
personally i am quite happy to be out of the running for Bellingham,
it was a awful lot of money for 1 player plusnhis wages on top of that.
signing Bellingham IMO would pretty much mean we wouldnt sign any other player this summer
i’m now looking forward to see who we bring in, could be 3 players for the cost of the bellingham deal!
They are so good at gaslighting us. 
Everyone keeps repeating that so it’s now assumed as truth. He’s expressed admiration for Gerrard but had ever said he’s a Liverpool fan or that he wants to join us?
Thing is knowing us you may or may not have seen the players who are coming linked to us (probably likely as everyone and his son has been).
But so little is actually known, yes the odd link will claim in the know but I think Thiago was the last one that went on for any amount of time.
This is the perfect place for him, and vice versa.
Just the fee a sticking point. So one problem and the world is falling apart. I wish I only had 1 problem in my life
just to be clear, we assume its a club leaked story…we assume its a PR exercise, we assume many things…we dont control the game…we just play it…
could be the journos have caught wind of the facts that we did walk away from somewhere else…approached the club and been informed they can print it with the clubs blessing…
the club are not going to deny their mouthpieces the scoop if it keeps them onboard for the next controlled leak.
in a nutshell…maybe the journos sourced the info elsewhere and it was going to get published regardless…
im inclined to think the story is based in facts, and we are at the mercy of the press on this one, not controlling it.
barcacentre
@barcacentre
2h
Barça have sealed their second signing for next season and his name is Gündogan. [@VMalo8] #fcblive
barcacentre
@barcacentre
2h
The agreement will not become official until the end of the season at the earliest. Gündogan was an absolute priority for the coaching staff and has been willing to lower his salary in order to join. [@VMalo8]
Guess we know where Jude’s going.
What is more interesting is how Barca manage to convince player after player to walk into that snake pit.
They treat players like shit and every season manage to find more willing to be thrown to the Wolves.
Treated like shit but still play for the badge on their shirt to the degree where they sit top of the league 13 points clear…it’d be crazy to think what they could do if they weren’t treated so badly my gosh.
They were in trouble, had to find a solution (& pretty quickly at that) and found agreements with certain players.
No