There is a lot of hype around Bellingham, yes.
Bellingham is one of those rare talents (but already a very good player) who will be the most expensive midfielder while he’s still young. Certainly before he’s 22? Unless something bad happens.
But all of the mentioned ones came from clubs/teams which were at least a level below us. For all of them, Liverpool, no matter how good or bad we were at the time, represented a step up.
The players that came from other clubs or have been at such, with top CV’s, were mostly past their peak. The likes of Morientes and Thiago first spring to mind. There weren’t many others.
That’s in my following at least.
Sometimes when I have the opportunity to speak with an older Liverpool fan, I ask about context of certain signings in the past. What did it mean back then to sign King Kenny from Celtic for a British transfer record? I know Kenny was already a serial winner at Celtic, with still half of his career to go. But what was the level in Scotland back then, how was it viewed in football?
Even if in the past, transfers were much less international(?), so there were fewer opportunities. And in general, the sport wasn’t followed as detailed as today. More simple!
I’m aiming at the type of transfer, to use a sale of ours as example, when Juventus signed Ian Rush. Top player from a top club, winner, age of 25 so not too young and not too old, nor past his peak.
I’m not saying we’re missing something. A lot of the most expensive ones are not worth it in the end, or flop. Liverpool have had a lot of bad periods in modern times, we just couldn’t do such deals a lot of the time even if we wanted (and naturally, you do). Not every transfer at Real or Barca is a Bellingham or Mbappe or Ronaldo.
But it’s just interesting how rarely it happened at Liverpool.
