Reported Liverpool target Jude Bellingham is getting angry at Borussia Dortmund’s valuation of him.
Bellingham is set to be the hottest property on the transfer market this summer, with Real Madrid, Manchester City and Liverpool all jostling for him.
But according to Spanish outlet Cadena SER, the 19-year-old is concerned that Dortmund are pricing him out of a move. They claim that Bellingham is ‘angry’ that his club’s £130m asking price is pushing away his trio of suitors. All three clubs are said to have told the England man personally that the fee is too high.
As a result, Liverpool are reportedly ‘looking at other players’ instead of Bellingham. City, for their part, are surprisingly claimed to have ‘already made an offer’ for Chelsea’s Mateo Kovacic as a contingency plan.
Madrid meanwhile reportedly see the terms demanded by Dortmund as being ‘barbaric.’ Should the fee fail to be lowered, it’s claimed they will change tact and look for a forward instead. Another reported Liverpool target- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia – is said to be the top target in that respect.
There could be further disappointing news for Liverpool, too. Cadena SER proclaim that Bellingham has now decided that he won’t move to a club that can’t offer Champions League football next season.
Power shift in Bellingham battle
Of course £130m is too high-a price to pay for one football player. That goes without saying. The market is well and truly out of control right now.
But seeing as Chelsea have now set the bar by paying £106m for Enzo Fernandez, there isn’t much Liverpool can do about it. As Kieran Trippier pointed out, Bellingham is ‘world-class.’ Dortmund are well within their rights to ask for whatever they like.
The encouraging thing here though, is that no club are seemingly willing to go that high for Bellingham. The worry for Liverpool in getting this deal done has always been finances. No matter what Cadena SER claim about the England international’s need for Champions League football, others have reported that it won’t actually be a factor.
No, the problem for the Reds was always that a Madrid or a City go above and beyond with a huge transfer fee. In that scenario, Liverpool simply wouldn’t be able to match them.
But if both the Reds’ rivals are baulking, it could end up being that Dortmund have to lower their demands. Of course, it isn’t impossible that the Germans then keep Bellingham for another year. But with the player reportedly starting to get restless, and having seemingly expressed a desire to join Liverpool, perhaps the power in this dynamic is shifting away from the player’s current club.