Carra saying what Momo has been saying for ages.
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Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp built a level of trust with regards to transfers which was the envy of Europe.
That trust has gone with news
they will not be pursuing Jude Bellingham this summer. It must be won back in the next transfer window because Klopp, his recruitment team and owners Fenway Sports Group have been granted a free pass for the dire performances of the last eight months, especially away from home.
There has been patience because of the quality since Klopp moved to Liverpool. Aside from a mid-season dip during the lockdown year, the club has been on an upward trajectory until now. When a Liverpool manager wins what Klopp has, he becomes a god and it will take more than one bad year to change that.
There was also confidence because Liverpool have a track record of waiting for the players they really want rather than haphazardly working through alternatives. When they failed to sign Aurélien Tchouaméni from Monaco in 2022, they opted not to use the £70 million he would have cost to buy another midfielder. They indicated wanting the right player, not any player. Everything pointed to waiting for Bellingham.
The supporters were sold the dream that
the next Steven Gerrard was Anfield-bound. While no one at Liverpool ever publicly acknowledged that plan, there was no attempt to dissuade anyone from such a view, especially when
Klopp enthusiastically praised the Borussia Dortmund teenager after the World Cup.
There was a historic precedent because the same strategy led Klopp to wait six months for Virgil van Dijk, a keeper of Alisson Becker’s class and a full season for Naby Keita. Van Dijk and Alisson were the game-changers that helped take Liverpool to the Champions League and Premier League titles.
Now, Liverpool have made it known they cannot afford Bellingham, after all. Naturally, there is anger and frustration from those who feel misled and confused.
The
discontent that I and many Liverpool supporters feltwhen the Bellingham revelation emerged on Tuesday evening is about the realisation the entire season has been a write-off based on a false pretence – that the money was there to go big on a stellar player as it was with Van Dijk, while still adding further necessary reinforcements to go again. How can the club suddenly baulk at a valuation exceeding £100 million? They know that is the going rate for the best in class.
What really infuriates me is the red herring that Liverpool have reached the conclusion Bellingham is too expensive on the basis of Klopp’s rebuild being bigger than initially thought. The club knows the elephant in the room is failing to sign a ready-made central midfielder last summer.
What looked like a terrible mistake has become a monumental cock-up which has cost the club millions in the Champions League revenues they will lose by finishing outside of the top four, and has sent the team back to where it was just before Klopp’s appointment.
At the end of last season, Liverpool were always going to need three midfielders over 12 months – preferably at least one in 2022, and another two in 2023. Some argue they should have made a midfield signing earlier, in the summer of 2021. That is harsh given how close Liverpool were to winning every major trophy in 2022. But over the course of last season, the pieces had to be in place for midfield renewal.
The contract situations and age profiles of senior players spelt that out. Jordan Henderson has been a fantastic servant, but at 32 there was always a possibility the burden of recent years would take its toll. The same is true of Fabinho, who is approaching his 30th birthday. Thiago Alcantara is a class player but often injured. James Milner, now 37, was out of contract last summer, but signed for another season. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Keita are in the final year of their deals after disappointing Liverpool careers.
This makes the idea that the club has suddenly realised they need three midfielders rather than one misleading. Had Tchouaméni chosen Liverpool over Madrid a year ago, Klopp would still have had to replace Oxlade-Chamberlain, Keita and Milner this summer.
That is his biggest mistake on this issue and he knows it, the last minute scramble for Arthur Melo on the final day of last August’s transfer window the big giveaway that he realised his error in not recruiting before the last pre-season.
That deal was an embarrassing climbdown and waste of money. The justification for it at the time was Liverpool were biding their time for the longer-term target.
The situation should never have reached a stage where pursuing Bellingham would compromise Klopp’s ability to make the three or four other signings he needs to revitalise the starting XI.
What should have been a natural midfield evolution has now turned into a complete rebuild because the same attention was not given to maintaining the dynamism in the centre that it was to the attack.
Fans would have accepted not signing Gakpo to land Bellingham
Liverpool have spent over £200 million on strikers, and given Mohamed Salah a massive new contract, since they last bought a first-choice central midfielder. Those deals were necessary as Roberto Firmino was declining, and good money was recouped for 30-year-old Sadio Mane.
Then Cody Gakpo signed for £40 million in January, even though the side was crying out for more midfield energy. Gakpo has made a promising start. I like him. But now it is even more baffling that another striker was prioritised. Most supporters would have willingly accepted the Gakpo outlay being kept back to turn a £90 million Bellingham bid into a £130 million signing.
This is the first time I have openly questioned Liverpool’s transfer policy during the Klopp era.
I get that Liverpool cannot spend like Manchester City, and they are not and should never be like Chelsea, who seem to sign highly rated, mega-expensive players on a whim without any idea how or where they will fit into the team and manager’s vision.
But it is on the club to think long-term, recognising at least a year in advance where the team will need reinforcing, and there are moments when pushing the boat out to do what is necessary to lure a generational talent is the way to propel a side to the next level. Liverpool did so with Van Dijk and Alisson, and a similar statement with Bellingham would have transformed expectations going into next season.
After a year working on a deal, it feels like a timid surrender to step aside and allow
Manchester City and Real Madrid to fight it out. There are times when a club of Liverpool's stature has to flex some muscle and remind their rivals they can and will be there to compete off and on the pitch.
To walk away because there is now too much work needed across the whole squad smacks of weakness, negligence and poor planning.
“Nobody could see this season coming,” has been a recurring excuse for Liverpool’s terrible season.
Plenty did last summer. If those in power at Anfield did not, they took their eye off the ball.
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