Rio Ferdinand does not believe Liverpool are one of the clubs Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder Jude Bellingham would currently consider joining.
The 19-year-old has impressed during his time in the Bundesliga and has established himself in Gareth Southgate's plans at international level.
Chelsea, Liverpool and Real Madrid are understood to be the leading contenders to sign Bellingham if he leaves Signal Iduna Park, with Arsenal and Manchester City also mentioned, but the Blues will be boosted by Ferdinand's thoughts on the subject.
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Speaking in the wake of Liverpool's humbling 5-2 defeat at home to Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night, the former England centre-back told BT Sport: “I think Jude Bellingham’s intelligent enough not to look at one game in isolation, he’ll be looking at the bigger picture. What do the next 12 months look like at Liverpool? What kind of impact can I have at Liverpool?
“I think if we said a year ago, or six months ago, I don’t think Jude Bellingham even questions Liverpool’s trajectory or where they’re going, because they were in a different place.
"At the moment, I don’t think Liverpool are going to be on his radar and that will be very disappointing for Liverpool fans. I think the club's in transition at the moment, the club's in the process of being sold or [are] up for sale, or whatever that looks like.
"The more important thing is that the team doesn’t seem to be functioning in the right way, and there’s a transition in terms of players in the team. There’s some old players there that are going to need to be shifted and moved on, and some young players brought in.
“Does he come into that? Or does he go into a team that looks like they’re going to win right now? Real Madrid have to be top of the list at the moment.”
Top of the list for Bellingham the defending Spanish and European champions may be but with Todd Boehly and the Clearlake Capital Consortium having already spent over £500 million on transfers since taking over at Chelsea, they can never be ruled out of the running.
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