Liverpool fans are reacting with a mixture of bewilderment and scepticism to reports that they won’t be buying Jude Bellingham after all. Also in the Mailbox: Arsenal’s dark arts; refs; and Chelsea.
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Liverpool backing away from Bellingham
A lot of chat around Liverpool’s now abandoned pursuit of Jude Bellingham at the moment. And I have to say it is dissapointing. I think we can expect to see a lot of ‘didn’t fancy her anyway’ over the next few days. I am not in that camp. He’s a fantastic young player, who I am sure would have been a joy to watch and someone to rebuild that midfield around long term.
But, and here it is from my point of view. Did my fellow reds actually think it was ever going to happen? I’ve had many chats this season where I have pointedly said – would be great, but it’s not going to happen. Even if we’d had a great season and won something, I just never saw if coming to fruition. It was always simply too much money. It certainly opens up some questions as to the finances of the club and the limits of investments, but let’s be real for a minute, in the last 3 transfer windows, we’ve brought in Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Nunez for a combined ~£140m. The only major outgoing being Mane for ~£35m. In addition we’ve given Mo Salah a new contract which is not insubstantial.
My point here is two-fold. One I think when you look at that, we have and will continue to invest. Two, when you are a club who can bring in 3 top class talented players for ~£140m, then would you suddenly shift that mindset to bringing in one playerfor the same amount. I appreciate I’m comparing apples and oranges in the fowards vs midfield debate, but we very much remain a ‘moneyball’ club. That was never likely to change. We also have no saleable assets in the playing squad to boost the budget significantly.
The bare facts are Liverpool need AT LEAST two new midfielders (likely one holding and one box-to-box, were they to replace Henderson and Fabinho), one centre-half and perhaps one new full back (right or left, though Tsimikas makes the left a lesser priority, he isn’t looking like a challenge to Andy Robertson anymore really). I think Liverpool need to be realistic, and as ever it’s a bit boring but neccessary. I expect those 3 or 4 players to come in.
Look at it this way: get in to a bidding war with Man City and Madrid, spend £140m on Bellingham, start next season with…
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