Liverpool owners FSG have a double transfer defense to justify Jude Bellingham ‘U’ turn

Jude Bellingham had been heavily linked with a move to Liverpool before reports emerged this week that the club were pulling out of a deal.

It has been a roller coaster week for Liverpool supporters after reports emerged the club had tried to sign Jude Bellingham, only to quickly receive news that they had pulled out of the race altogether. Instead, Liverpool are expected to use the money set aside for this summer on multiple midfield signings rather than spending it all on a single player.

There is a lot of anger and frustration among Liverpool fans over the apparent new attitude towards Bellingham after months of speculation that Anfield is his preferred destination. Nothing can be ruled out until the summer transfer window and a lot can still change between now and then. But for now, it seems Liverpool have no plans to meet Borussia Dortmund’s demands. Bellingham has already been touted as the lord and savior of Liverpool by club fans with mock-up photos of the midfielder in a Reds shirt.

However, he isn’t the first player Liverpool have been closely linked with, only for the club to reverse their original plans. It was 2018 when the Reds were looking to revamp their midfield and Nabil Fekir was seen as the man who would take the club to the next level.

The Frenchman had just wrapped up a sensational season at Lyon and looked set to join Liverpool in a £53million transfer, only for the deal to fall through in the eleventh hour. At the time, Liverpool fans were furious that the deal failed, but they won the Champions League less than a year later.

Georginio Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho built a formidable relationship in midfield, with the Reds enjoying huge success while Fekir’s career stalled. A similar situation played out with Timo Werner in 2020 as they sought to sign the pole-position striker before Chelsea moved in to pay his £49.4m release clause.

Fans were once again furious that the club had been beaten in the transfer market by a Premier League rival. But Werner’s move to Stamford Bridge proved disastrous as he failed to match the form he displayed in the Bundesliga. With Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota joining as new options for Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, Liverpool now boast one of the strongest attacking squads in European football. It remains to be seen what will happen to Bellingham this summer and whether Liverpool will end up regretting not choosing the midfielder.

He is undoubtedly a world-class talent, but Liverpool have shown in the past that they are more than capable of coping with other options. And if FSG’s about-face proves successful, the Bellingham transfer saga could prove to be a distant memory.

Also.. 

FSG and Jurgen Klopp have Case to answer over failed Jude Bellingham transfer campaigns 

Jude Bellingham isn’t the only midfielder Liverpool could sign this summer, but the narrative surrounding the latest ‘volley’ is not unknown to the Reds.

Clever and shrewd were two words that could describe the club’s transfer business just a few years ago, a necessity when operating on a tight budget.

The limited funds available and the need to be self-sufficient comes as no surprise, we have heard and seen it all under FSG ownership.

Jurgen Klopp has admitted more times than you can count that financially Liverpool cannot compete with Man City and Chelsea.

This means the Reds cannot afford transfer mistakes, further underlining the aforementioned qualities of market knowledge. At first glance, parting ways with more than £115m on a single player goes against Liverpool’s strategy, but it starts to look silly when the narrative is defended at the cost of losing alternatives.

A lost season

We all know Klopp is willing to wait for goals from him, Virgil van Dijk is a good example of that and it paid off from him.

However, it was widely reported on this occasion that Liverpool had laid substantial groundwork in chasing down Bellingham, a player accepted as their number 1 transfer target.

The 19 year old would never come cheap, a generational talent doesn’t fall into your lap without the cash to top it.

But when a briefing to all Merseyside journalists led to the news of Liverpool’s withdrawal from the race, it didn’t come as a complete surprise. We’ve been here before.

Now he could still be part of a larger tactical plan when it comes to Borussia Dortmund, as we’ve seen the Reds ‘retire’ before, eventually signing the player.

But on the face of it, the club has sacrificed this season as they were unwilling to compromise on their goals last summer, for now say the cost is prohibitive when they would have known about it every step of the way.

Reporters checked several alternate targets by name, including Mason Mount, Matheus Nunes, Conor Gallagher, Moises Caicedo, Joao Palhinha and Ryan Gravenberch, to name a few.

But Liverpool could have gone after one of those players last summer, or several others – including Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes – and avoided the crushing reality check soon after a season of four-man pursuits. The midfield has been neglected causing poor management and a lack of strategic direction which is only made worse by the lack of money being reinvested into the club.

But for fans, the main concern will be that, prior to this season, Liverpool were at their best, having won every possible trophy in a three-year period.

If income after six consecutive Champions League seasons – winning once and in the final twice – winning the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, Super Cup and Club World Cup cannot significantly increase expenditure, then nothing will.

FSG are risk averse but now it is riskier to sit still and force Klopp to start all over again with a bigger handicap for rivals Liverpool.

It’s always “next summer”

Liverpool needed to build from a position of strength, a constant upgrade in the transfer market to rebuild the squad without having to jump off the bike and stall the momentum. Instead, the club have taken their time without investing and instead of a player here and there, they now need a handful of midfield signings and centre-backs to support – the list is long.

And the line that Liverpool’s plans must be altered if no Champions League is assured is weak at best, it’s the latest in a long line of always professing ‘next summer’.

Klopp will take a pragmatic approach to weeding out players who don’t want to push the train and help Liverpool get back to the Champions League, but that’s a whole different level of matchmaking.

But fans won’t be the only ones viewing the situation with skeptical eyes.

Van Dijk was quick to explain that “if we want to be where we have been for five years, we need quality imports”, acknowledging that while quality signings will be hard to come by, “the club but he has to do his job.”

It’s a cycle we know all too well, it takes showing signs of success to attract and retain world-class talent. The manager insisted that “the club will definitely get through the summer” but there is every reason for fans to feel unsettled by the noise currently emanating from Liverpool.

The search for a sporting director continues, cohesion towards direction and strategy is tarnished at best and instead of players being signed to fit the system as we used to do, we are seeing a trend towards changing the system to fit signatures.

There is obvious, and rightly so, frustration stemming from the Bellingham news, although it is clear that the issue is bigger than Bellingham signing or not signing.

But it still felt like, without a guarantee, Liverpool had put all their eggs in Jude Bellingham’s basket and now we have no basket and the balls in our faces.

How Liverpool will clean and right the ship remains to be seen, but the club need to show up and make their mark this summer. If it’s not now, it never will be.