Liverpool pull out of Bellingham race

After lengthy discussions within the club on the subject, Liverpool have decided to pull out of the race for the services of Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham, according to numerous relatively reliable sources. The claim has come from the likes of Paul Joyce of The Times, James Pearce of The Athletic, Neil Jones of Goal.com, as well as Fabrizio Romano.

Bellingham was Liverpool’s No.1 target for the upcoming summer transfer window as they seek for young, dynamic midfielders to revamp the section of the squad. However, it seems they’ve come to the terms with the fact that they simply cannot afford to spend €150m on one player at this point, which is what Dortmund are believed to be asking for and not willing to budge. Not if they are to sign several players of the right level of quality – and let’s face it, they need more than one.

Liverpool’s decision not to “put all their eggs in one basket”, even if it means giving up on the player they’ve admired for so long and who apparently admires them very much, makes good sense, obviously. On the other hand, one has to question their long-term strategy here, given that they apparently refused to go for anyone else last summer after failing to sign Aurelien Tchouameni; they decided at the time to wait for Bellingham to be on the market and went for a temporary solution in the form of taking Arthur Melo on loan from Juventus.

Arthur has so far made only one appearance for the Merseysiders, and their lack of quality options in the middle of the park has cost them an arm and a leg this season.

The development will be greeted warmly by Manchester City and Real Madrid, both of whom have been credited with strong interest in the 19-year-old England international as well, though his stay in Dortmund beyond this summer cannot be ruled out at this point either.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have moved on to alternative targets. They’ve recently been linked with the likes of Chelsea’s Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher, Brighton duo of Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo, Wolves’ Matheus Nunes, Ryan Gravenberch of Bayern Munich, and Youri Tielemans of Leicester City.