Liverpool’s transfer business has gone quiet as Premier League rivals step it up in the market .
With the European transfer window set to open on Saturday, Liverpool are still finding themselves ‘spinning plates’ as their efforts to restructure their squad go on.
The message has been consistent for quite some time inside the club regarding the business that needs to be undertaken this summer. The will be plenty of moving parts and it has required a level of agility the Reds have not always needed in recent years, particularly for players like Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Thiago Alcantara, who are three who Jurgen Klopp refused to budge on when it came to transfer targets.
While the pool of players capable of improving the squad between the years of 2018 and 2022 was a shallow one given the success that came during that time, the shock underperformance of last season has at least deepend that well this time around.
As July 1 rolls into focus, however, Liverpool are still looking at what can be achieved this summer as they gear up for a first season outside the Champions League since 2016/17. Some have argued activity has been limited due to the European dates for the transfer window and while there is some merit in that, it has done little to delay Jude Bellingham’s blockbuster move to Real Madrid.
Bellingham, of course, was once the object of affection at the AXA Centre. It feels like a long time ago now since some supporters worked themselves into a giddy stupor during the World Cup when the then Borussia Dortmund international was regularly cavorting with England colleagues Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson.
Liverpool privately believed at the time that Bellingham’s valuation was somewhere around the £80m mark only to see it inevitably sky-rocket due to his performances for the Three Lions in Qatar.
Once Gareth Southgate’s side were eliminated by France at the quarter-final stage, the new Real Madrid midfielder was being touted as a £130m man and by early April it was clear the Reds did not believe spending what would be the lion’s share of their transfer budget on one player would represent prudence at a time when more than just one was needed to fix the problems that had sprung up quicker than whack-a-mole.
Interest in Mason Mount was genuine but figures of around £60-65m were always likely to be prohibitive for a player entering the final 12 months of his contract. The Chelsea midfielder remains at Stamford Bridge for now while Manchester United try to negotiate a lower price. The Mount saga is becoming increasingly drawn-out, which is something Liverpool always try to avoid
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