Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Liverpool Echo

Sport

Dave Powell

Liverpool may need Jude Bellingham transfer rethink after £502m problem emerges

Chelsea's late January transfer scramble for Enzo Fernandez on Tuesday will likely have a knock-on impact on what Liverpool will need to spend in the summer.

The Todd Boehly/Clearlake Capital era at Chelsea has been notable thus far for its willingness to spend big in the transfer market, the club having shelled out some £550m on 17 players since they took charge in May last year, with eight of those arriving in a January transfer window where they spent more than La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga combined.

In landing 21-year-old Fernandez, a World Cup winner with Argentina in December, it was a victory for persistence, but more so for the resilience of selling club Benfica. The Portuguese side had remained firm in their stance that Fernandez would not be leaving for anything less than his €120m (£105m) buyout clause. Chelsea eventually caved to those demands and Benfica sold a player for £95m more than they paid for him last summer.

Fernandez made an eye-catching debut for Chelsea in their 0-0 draw at home to Fulham on Friday night but it will take some time to fathom out whether the £105m paid, a British transfer record, will be money well spent.

Liverpool weren't active in January, something which incurred the ire of many Reds fans. The signing of Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven for £37m when the window opened was to be the only bit of business that was concluded by the Reds.

This coming summer has taken on extra significance with a significant rebuilding of the squad required, particularly in midfield, with owners Fenway Sports Group, who are actively looking to bring in fresh investment through an equity sale but remaining open to a full sale, likely to have to dig deeper and commit more to transfer spend than they ever have previously.

Jude Bellingham is a player who remains at the top of Liverpool's shortlist. Their inaction in January has only served to heighten the need for them to land the 19-year-old Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder, but with interest from Real Madrid and others it is a game of risk, particularly if Liverpool's spluttering season continues and they miss out on the lucrative bounty that is Champions League football next season.

In landing Fernandez, a player who Liverpool were themselves linked with, Chelsea have at least shown the Reds where they will need to be in the summer.

Dortmund will have been watching the Fernandez transfer with interest. Two years older than Bellingham but less experience at the very top level of club football, his exploits at the World Cup certainly aided his price tag and Chelsea's willingness to meet it. Liverpool would almost certainly need to smash the British transfer record again to land Bellingham, and it's hard to imagine much change from £120m.

As there is with the valuation of football clubs themselves, with the transfer of players there is major element of the last deal setting the tone for the next. Chelsea, who have played the long game with their transfer spree after spreading the impact on their accounts by amortising the cost of transfers over longer periods of seven and eight year contracts, have set a new benchmark for clubs in the market, and that is something that has likely arrived at the worst possible time for FSG given the need to spend heavily this summer. The ability to negotiate cut-price deals is diminishing and the value that existed in markets such as Portugal previously is now harder to find.

Dortmund will be emboldened to hold their line on Bellingham and make the most of the bidding war that is likely ensue for his services in the summer, unless someone blinks first and heads towards a pre-contract agreement.

At least Liverpool will know their feet will be held to the fire on any such deal. Whether or not there is the appetite to go as big as will be required to land their number one target remains to be seen.

READ NEXT: