Chelsea believe that Liverpool are most likely to sign Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund next summer.
That’s according to The Telegraph, who claim that Chelsea are ‘trying to play catch up’ to both Liverpool and Real Madrid.
The Reds, along with the Spanish giants, are said to be ‘leading the way’ as far as Chelsea are concerned. This reportedly hasn’t put Chelsea off pursuing Bellingham, though.
It’s claimed that owner Todd Boehly is ready to ‘make a serious play’ for the 19-year-old. For Liverpool’s part, they’re said to have been working on a deal with the England star ‘for months.’
Chelsea late to the Bellingham party
At this stage of proceedings, it feels a little like Chelsea are late to the party. However, Boehly has already shown that he’s willing to back his new club tremendously in the market. As David Ornstein reported, Bellingham is a ‘dream’ signing for Premier League clubs and would put the cherry on that.
As a result, they could still be a very dangerous opponent to Liverpool in particualr.
For the likes of Madrid and also Manchester City, they can more than match Chelsea’s spending power. But Liverpool can’t, or perhaps won’t, go crazy.
It seems as though Bellingham’s final decision won’t be based purely on money anyway. But Dortmund will surely be keen to instigate something of a bidding war.
Should that come to pass, it might not matter how much groundwork Liverpool have put in with Bellingham. If they’re out-gunned by Chelsea, Madrid or City, there isn’t much they can do.
Hopefully, the Blues instinct that Liverpool are leading the way turns out to be true. For such wide-spread reporting of the same line, Liverpool must have made some inroads in their pursuit of the player.
The expectation of those within the game appears to be that the Reds are the front-runners. There’s still a long way to go until next summer but Liverpool look to be well placed.
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