Gravenberch Liverpool, Sabitzer future, Onana

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Liverpool are out of the race for Jude Bellingham. They did a lot of legwork, and never lost confidence they could persuade the player to join if it only came down to that aspect. But in the end a decision had to be made on whether it was worth getting sucked into a protracted bidding war and ‘overpaying’ as a result if successful.

The total cost of Bellingham if he leaves this summer, with no release clause in his current deal, could be around £130m, plus agent fees and wages. Some people will argue Liverpool always knew this was the ballpark, but price is also fluid and dictated by demand, and the club’s budget is also altered by a lack of Champions League football. As previously reported, the fear was always that another Premier League club came in, allowing Dortmund even more bargaining chips. Manchester City are making their move and Real Madrid are still intent on signing Bellingham as well.

Although Champions League isn’t mathematically beyond Liverpool yet, especially after thrashing Leeds 6-1, when the club began their Bellingham pursuit it was considered almost a given, which shows how far Liverpool have fallen this season on the field. This is an important point because when clubs near-automatically qualify for Champions League they start pre-budgeting for it. Clubs not in the UCL as regularly are a little more cautious with their financial forward-planning.

So right now Liverpool would rather spend their ‘Bellingham budget’ on a handful of players and, as importantly, get their business done early and with more certainty. The other option would be to go all in for Bellingham – a player Jurgen Klopp would still love at Anfield – and find it was either at the expense of strengthening other areas, or just a race they didn’t win.

My understanding is Liverpool are now pretty confident on some other targets, and quite far along for this stage before the window opens, and that may also have informed why they chose to walk away from Bellingham now. I fully expect Liverpool to get multiple deals done early in the summer window. It’s easy to focus on the Bellingham backlash, and I am sure many fans are disappointed, but I would judge Liverpool after the first 2-3 weeks of the window rather than now.

There is a real chance Mason Mount joins from Chelsea. Mount is no closer…