Neil Jones continues to back Liverpool in the market when it comes to the potential acquisition of Jude Bellingham in the summer.
It’s worth bearing in mind the potential impact of the club’s struggles this season, of course, though Anfield does remain an attractive prospect for a player of the 19-year-old’s calibre.
“Liverpool need to get themselves back on the image of being an upwardly-mobile club,” the GOAL reporter told Redmen TV for their Journo Insight show.
“I don’t think you need to say the last five months have ripped everything out of the last five years but it definitely has produced some cracks in the armoury.
“Last summer, if you said to Jude Bellingham (and Dortmund were willing to sell) ‘do you fancy it?’, he’d be like ‘yeah, just nearly won everything. Let’s go again, I’ll be the difference’. Now it’s like ‘can you pick us back up?’
“There needs to be a convincing pitch there where Liverpool explain it’s down to a few bad injuries and a couple of bad decisions but they’re going to do this, this and this and get back on it.
“I don’t think that’s beyond the realms of possibility for Liverpool, they’ve still got Klopp and very good players.”
The Merseysiders currently face a likely scenario where three of their current crop of midfielders – Naby Keita, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – all depart in the summer owing to expiring contracts.
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As such, it’s clear that (as undeniably superb as Bellingham is) it’s a case of numbers for Liverpool just as much as it is about quality.
In that respect, we need to be sure of getting in more than just the Englishman in through the door come the opening of the summer window, if not for the sake of having fresh options to select from but also to protect our young stars from over-reliance.
Whether such hopes will be fulfilled remains to be seen and may very well be dependent on us first qualifying for the Champions League next term.
A new contract for Stefan Bajcetic shows a continuing commitment to youth at L4 – hopefully, a couple of younger additions down the line will further entrench that commitment.
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It’s gonna be fascinating to see how this plays out with owners that aren’t prepared to strengthen the team now to protect their investment with top 4.
Even if its some lacklustre alternative or two to Bellingham the cowardly Billy Hogan will send Klopp out to explain why and calm things down.
I’m hoping an owner is strategically waiting in the wings to buy the club outright and cheaper if we finish outside top 4