The two main reasons Jude Bellingham couldn’t pursue his ‘career plan’ and sign for Liverpool

It could have been the transfer saga of the summer, but it is now almost certain that Jude Bellingham will leave Borussia Dortmund and join Real Madrid instead of spending a few years at Liverpool, which was part of his career plan.

According to Bundesliga pundit and veteran football journalist Christian Falk, writing in his exclusive CaughtOffside Substack, there are two main reasons for this, one of which is unlikely to please fans of the Anfield club.

The England international is only 19 and despite his injuries he is sure to carry on and have a brilliant career. Likely a mainstay in Liverpool’s midfield if the club can get a deal done there has to be more than a touch of disappointment from Jurgen Klopp and co that there won’t be.

“In the end, this saga ends as it should. Liverpool don’t have the money for Jude Bellingham and Manchester City was never an option for the Dortmund player, so Real Madrid had a clear path” Falk wrote.

‘[…] I heard Bellingham fancied playing for Liverpool for a few years before moving to Real Madrid. That was his career plan, but Liverpool didn’t have the money for this deal.’

Liverpool have shown in recent seasons that they can do well on the transfer market and can’t really be blamed for not wanting to put all their eggs in one basket.

After a sub-par season by their standards, the Reds need to strengthen themselves in a number of key areas and spending a significant portion of their transfer budget on Bellingham is financially meaningless.

However, the problem isn’t just Liverpool’s reluctance to pay the sizable fee this summer. “Mark Bellingham, who is leading his son’s career as a director of his own company, BelloBall LTD, definitely wants to wrap things up this summer,” Falk continued.

“These are high commission payments and the context is the new FIFA Statute, which is due to come into force on October 1.

According to this, only licensed players’ agents are allowed to issue invoices and they would only receive ‘a share of three per cent club commission and three per cent player, depending on their salary.’ FIFA’s decision also applies to family members.

“In the event of a transfer after this summer, Mark Bellingham would either have to pass the difficult licensing test or hire a licensed agent and the former is out of the question as he was not enrolled in the spring course. In a nutshell: Real Madrid have already budgeted an annual salary of €20m (€100m on a five-year contract) for Bellingham, and they are expected to pay €3m to the authorized consultant, of which only a fraction , minus taxes and deductibles, goes to Mark Bellingham – who should himself be taxed.

“Under the current rule, the fee is still 10% and would pass directly from the receiving club to Mark Bellingham and would only need to be taxed once. Neither Jude could wait for Liverpool in a sporting sense, nor to father him Mark in a financial sense.’

There are often a multitude of reasons transfer deals fail, of course, but understanding that agency fees could be part of why Bellingham didn’t get a dream move to Anfield is likely to leave some flavor. bitter in the mouth. everyone who pays their hard earned money to follow Liverpool through thick and thin.

Also..

Supercomputer predicts Liverpool vs Brentford to get the Premier League results

Liverpool meet Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, so we’ve simulated the clash to try and predict the end result

Liverpool play at Anfield for the third time in a week on Saturday when they take on Brentford in the Premier League.

A 1-0 win over Fulham on Wednesday took the Reds to five wins, with Mohamed Salah scoring his 18th league goal of the season.

Next up for Jurgen Klopp’s side is Brentford, who have had an impressive season and, like their opponents, are in good form and in contention for a European spot.

However, Liverpool will be looking for revenge after losing the second leg in January.

So can the Reds avenge this defeat and move up a point from their place in the Champions League? We’ll take a look….

Score Liverpool vs Brentford predicted by simulation:

To complete this simulation, we used FIFA 23 and updated the teams with the latest injuries and suspensions.

We predict Liverpool could be set up in a 3-2-2-3 formation with the following formation: Alisson; Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Alexandre-Arnold, Fabinho; Henderson, Jones; Salah, Gakpo, Diaz.

We anticipate the Bees could line up in a 4-3-3 formation, with their roster as follows: Raya; Hickey, Pinnock, Mee, Henry; Dasilva, Janelt, Jensen; Mbuemo, Toney, Wissa.

Liverpool were missing the advantage in front of goal against Fulham as many chances were wasted but that was not the case this time around as they took a two-goal lead inside the first 16 minutes of the game. Cody Gakpo put the Reds ahead after just five minutes, with the striker receiving the ball from Trent Alexnader-Arnold just outside the box before going past his marker and finding the bottom corner.

Alexander-Arnold was the biggest attacking threat for Liverpool, who looked dangerous whenever he had the ball, and he set up the second as well, threading a fantastic reverse pass into the path of Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian cut past Ben Mee to enter the box and curled his shot around David Raya to find the bottom corner.

The situation went from bad to worse for Brentford in the 39th minute when Ethan Pinnock was sent off for a dangerous lunge on Luis Diaz. The Colombian was okay to continue, though, and he set up the Reds’ third and netted their fourth on either side of half-time as the floodgates opened.

Diaz went past two defenders down the left before punching in a cross into the penalty area, and a drop from Raya saw the ball drop to Curtis Jones on the goal line, where he could have made no mistake. And soon after the restart, Diaz made four, with Jordan Henderson driving a ball wide, who put his shot past Raya at the near post.
With 23 minutes to go, the Bees pulled a goal back, with Bryan Mbuemo’s thunderous shot from just inside the box finding the top corner to leave Alisson with no chance. Jurgen Klopp then made a series of substitutions; two of which both scored and hit Brentford for six.

Darwin Nunez came off the bench to notch the Reds’ fifth, flicking Andrew Robertson’s corner across the face of goal and into the bottom corner. And in the 90th minute, Alexander-Arnold led a counte-rattack before finding Harvey Elliott, who smashed the ball home to top off a fantastic afternoon.

FIFA 23 predicted score: Liverpool 6-1 Brentford

Here are the full-time match stats:

FIFA 23 predicts that Liverpool could run riot at Anfield, winning 6-1 in the simulation. The Reds boasted their attacking talent with six different goalscorers, while Alexander-Arnold flourished once again in midfield, grabbing a hat trick of assists.

What do you think the final score will be? Let us know in the comments.