Jurgen Klopp has now made clear his plan for Jude Bellingham this summer, telling Liverpool’s recruitment team to prioritise the England international above all else.
This comes in the wake of the Reds’ extremely tame exit from the Champions League as a late Karim Benzema goal at the Bernabeu consigned the visitors to a 6-2 defeat on aggregate in the Round of 16.
“No talks yet between Dortmund and Jude Bellingham, so I’m not sure if it’s the right time now ahead of the international break,” the BILD journalist exclusively told CaughtOffside in his latest Substack column.
“I heard that because of Liverpool’s experience in the Champions League this term, Jurgen Klopp made his thoughts very clear: Bellingham is now the top, top target. He said that every other transfer should be pushed down the pecking order; names like Randal Kolo Muani aren’t as important at the moment – there’s just one name and this is Bellingham.
“Klopp needs him in the midfield, though they can see the difficulty in completing such a deal because Real Madrid are moving as well.
“But there is some good news for Liverpool, as Madrid are also interested in Joško Gvardiol and it’s not realistic for them to pay for both as Gvardiol would be an over €100m deal, as would Bellingham.”
The Merseysiders must now pour all their eggs into one basket and vie for what appears to be an increasingly elusive top four spot.
With Newcastle slowly rediscovering their form ahead of the international break and Tottenham finding ways to win games despite similar question marks over their consistency, it paints something of a bleak picture for us with 12 games remaining in the English top-flight.
Given that the prior break during the World Cup, not to mention the training camp in Dubai, had a virtually unnoticeable impact on the quality of our performances, there won’t be many holding their breath over what will follow the international break.
The best we can hope for is that our injured stars make a quick recovery in time for a brutal April schedule that will see us come to blows with the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal.
We’ve history for pulling a run of form out of the bag when the chips are down under Klopp, so we’ve absolutely no doubt in his ability to steer us back into the heralded top four spots and put the club in the best position to implement wholesale changes in the summer.
If we can begin the next stage of our evolution with the addition of Bellingham (earning a reported £49,000-a-week, according to Salary Sport), it’ll represent a significant step forward, not to mention a statement of intent to Europe and the English top-flight.
CL places out of reach with this half hearted burnt out lot.
Reset to next season a clearout and whatever players who want to come and play on FSGs Europa League budget