Liverpool have given up on the race for Jude Bellingham - for now - because of manager Jurgen Klopp’s painful realisation his squad will require more extensive surgery than anticipated this summer.
The Anfield club’s impending absence from next season’s Champions League has brought home the stark truth that owners FSG can not afford to spend £130m on the young Dortmund midfielder, AND make the three or four further signings Klopp has identified.
While the Reds boss is a huge admirer of Bellingham, he believes his biggest priority this summer is to land a top class holding midfielder to replace Fabinho, whose dramatic collapse this season has been at the heart of Liverpool ’s demise.
Klopp had already identified a potential problem in that position at the end of last season, and went all in on a £75m bid for Monaco’s talented number 6 Aurélien Tchouaméni, only to be outbid by Real Madrid.
But sources suggest Klopp will attempt to resurrect his interest in the France midfielder, who has never really settled in Madrid, and is not an automatic choice as he sits behind countryman Eduardo Camavinga in the Real pecking order.
IF Bernabeu bosses are prepared to sanction a deal, it would take at least the fee of €100m they paid last summer, which translates to almost £90m at today’s crippling exchange rate, after the UK’s economic collapse.
Klopp has - sensibly - three other holding midfielders on his shortlist. There has been contact with Brighton over Moises Caicedo, and discreet enquiries over England midfielder Declan Rice, with both valued at well over £75m. Fulham ’s Joao Palhinha is a cheaper option at around £40m.
But the manager also must now find first team-ready, potentially world class replacements for both Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain, and they won’t come cheap, with Mason Mount a real target at around £50m, and interest in Brighton’s £75m rated Alexis Mac Allister, while Conor Gallagher has also been mentioned.
He would also like to add a young, versatile replacement for Milner, while a defender is on his wish-list, with Frankfurt’s versatile Evan Ndicka an interesting prospect who is out of contract in the summer.
But there is no hiding the simple fact that the club can-not afford a summer spending spree of £250m-£300m which rivals such as Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea routinely, and apparently comfortably undertake.
Under FSG the most they’ve ever spent in one summer is £160m, way back in 2018 - and that was offset by almost £40m of sales. That wouldn’t exclude the purchase of Bellingham of course, who the club calculate would cost £130m this summer.
But with at least three required in midfield, the sensible choice is to concentrate on a holding player who can give back much needed protection and shape to Klopp’s unbalanced midfield of this season.
That will take at least £75m, and the reckoning is it may be wiser to sign players like Mount and Mac Alister for a combined fee of less than the Bellingham price tag. Liverpool too, privately, have been at pains to point out there is NO guarantee Bellingham will move this summer, an interesting take.
That at least offers the manager the - admittedly fragile - hope the player will stay another season at Dortmund, offering the Reds the chance to compete in a year’s time, when his fee will be much reduced as he moves towards the final year of his contract.
