'Liverpool thought they were going to sign Jude Bellingham'

Tom Weber

• Updated: 22 Jul 2023 11:34 CDT
• 3 min read

Liverpool were confident of securing a deal for Jude Bellingham, a journalist has revealed.

The Reds were at one point considered the favourites to land the former Borussia Dortmund wonderkid. As the 2022/23 season went on, it became increasingly clear that Bellingham would depart the Bundesliga club for pastures new this summer.

When it was revealed that he would prefer a club with tradition and history - essentially ending the hopes of nouveau richer big-hitters like Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea - the links with Liverpool picked up even more steam.

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In the end, however, the Reds had to pull out of the deal for what was claimed were financial reasons and the 20-year-old ended up joining Real Madrid for an eye-watering €103 million.

Now, Ian Doyle has asserted that the Scousers were initially confident of being able to strike a deal.

What did Doyle say?

Speaking on Redmen TV, the Liverpool Echo journalist said: "They [Liverpool] are not able to spend as much on players because they’re not in the Champions League. That’s fair enough and we know they missed out on Bellingham."

"I don’t care what anyone says, they were in for Bellingham and they thought they were going to sign him until Liverpool went rubbish and he went ‘no thanks’ and who can blame him?"

Instead of signing one €103m player, Liverpool have already brought in two new midfielders and a third one is expected to follow suit eventually. Alexis Mac Allister was the Reds' first summer signing, joining from Brighton for €42m, before Dominik Szoboszlai arrived from RB Leipzig for €70m.

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Jurgen Klopp and company still plan on adding a defensive-minded player in the centre of the park, especially if Fabinho's transfer to Al-Ittihad goes through. Romeo Lavia from relegated Southampton has been heavily linked, but even Kalvin Phillips from Manchester City has emerged as a target in recent times.