Jude Bellingham | Signed for Madrid

Status
Not open for further replies.

Josh 76

Full Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2018
Messages
5,596
Where’s all this talk that he is Liverpool fan coming from? His idol was Gerard but that doesn’t mean he supports them. Probably a Birmingham fan.
I played football against his dad (amateur level) and I can tell you he is definitely a Birmingham City fan. But having said that, he probably had a soft spot for Liverpool as when he was in his early teenage years, the scousers were just starting to hit the Klopp era and gathered up a lot of glory hunters.
 

Josh 76

Full Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2018
Messages
5,596
Its obvious the Liverpool lads have worked him. Bellingham's so pally with them. Its inevitable that if they've got the cash he's going to Liverpool.
Henderson will be gone in another year or two. Some Liverpool fans want him replaced now (that was before his “world class” performance the other day against the mighty Senegal.

If they sign Bellingham in the summer, he will probably take a couple of years to settle with all the pressure. (young age, never played in PL, huge price tag).

When that time comes, VVD, Salah, Tiago, Fabiano, Firmino, and Robertson will all be gone or on their last legs. And Klopp will be entering his final year of his contract.

Or he can go to City and play the best years of his football with his mates, Foden, Phillips, Grealish and Haaland!
 

Pickle85

Full Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2021
Messages
6,589
Have you watched him a lot for Dortmund(I have)? When has he been struggling against teams that give him less time on the ball? There is plenty of evidence he's not struggling with little time on the ball. He's got the perception, intensity, tempo and engine to perform in that type of games. He can play both possession based and high paced counter attacking football. He'd be perfect next to a Casemiro or another good DM behind Bruno or Eriksen.
FDJ would also be a great fit. Different, but great.
We shall see, I'll respectfully disagree for now. Bundesliga performance doesn't always equate to performance at the top level. He's been fine in the CL but nothing special for me.
 

Erik the Red

New Member
Newbie
Joined
May 19, 2022
Messages
707
For the price of one Bellingham, we can get two of FDJ, Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo to go alongside Casemiro and Eriksen, and have our entire midfield sorted.
 

crossy1686

career ending
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
31,728
Location
Manchester/Stockholm
Yeah, I did think that myself, defo seems to be a massive charm offensive going on from the Liverpool lads.

Only just passing the info on that I seen, and the guys on there do seem to rate his info. I rate the lad so certainly would much rather see him at Madrid than any of our rivals.
It’s easy to read into this stuff but Bellingham is a kid, he plays mostly alongside Henderson, who is a seasoned pro, which means they probably have to spend a lot of time together so they know each others game on the pitch. Trent is just sitting with them because he’s got no mates and shouldn’t even be in the squad.
 

troylocker

Full Member
Joined
May 2, 2019
Messages
2,570
Greenwood played almost 50 games in 19/20. He was younger at the end of that season than Haaland when he moved to Dortmund.
We negotiatied with the Haaland camp in December 2019 until he decided to sign for Dortmund around the 25th that month. (He has said many times since that he signed for Dortmund because he felt only the manager and not the club wanted him here, he was not guaranteed minutes and we didn't include a release clause in his contract.)
Greenwood had at the time Haaland signed for Dortmund started his first PL match (plenty of short sub-cameos though) and started some games in the EFL Cup and EL (goals against Rochdale, Astana, Partizan, AZ (2) and Sheffield U in around 1000 minutes). There was reason to believe Greenwood was a good talent, but there was no reason to believe Greenwood was close to Haaland levels (28 goals and 7 assists in 1464 minutes - 8 goals in 374 minutes in the CL so far that season). The argument that we didn't need Haaland because we had Greenwood was just silly.
Not as silly as the "we don't need Bellingham because we have Mainoo", but I guess you get my point.

If you have a chance of signing the next superstar in a position at 19, you do whatever it takes to get him, even if it makes the road from the academy to our first team a little bit longer for some of our talents.

I don't think we'll get Bellingham, but he would be a fantastic signing for us, even at 100M+....
 

troylocker

Full Member
Joined
May 2, 2019
Messages
2,570
There's also a huge difference in physicality and intensity between the premier league and the Bundesliga, most 17 year old kids don't have the physical presences to handle the PL on a consistent basis at that age, I suspect that this is one of the reasons Sancho is having problems, he's not 17 anymore but he looks to be struggling with the physicality and intensity
This is a part of the game that Bellingham has though.
 

Idxomer

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2014
Messages
15,367
We negotiatied with the Haaland camp in December 2019 until he decided to sign for Dortmund around the 25th that month. (He has said many times since that he signed for Dortmund because he felt only the manager and not the club wanted him here, he was not guaranteed minutes and we didn't include a release clause in his contract.)
Greenwood had at the time Haaland signed for Dortmund started his first PL match (plenty of short sub-cameos though) and started some games in the EFL Cup and EL (goals against Rochdale, Astana, Partizan, AZ (2) and Sheffield U in around 1000 minutes). There was reason to believe Greenwood was a good talent, but there was no reason to believe Greenwood was close to Haaland levels (28 goals and 7 assists in 1464 minutes - 8 goals in 374 minutes in the CL so far that season). The argument that we didn't need Haaland because we had Greenwood was just silly.
Not as silly as the "we don't need Bellingham because we have Mainoo", but I guess you get my point.

If you have a chance of signing the next superstar in a position at 19, you do whatever it takes to get him, even if it makes the road from the academy to our first team a little bit longer for some of our talents.

I don't think we'll get Bellingham, but he would be a fantastic signing for us, even at 100M+....
I only mentioned Greenwood as a counterpoint to the idea that Haaland wasn't going to get a lot of minutes at United because of his age.

Haaland was a year older and more developed physically, he wouldn't have had any problem getting a lot of games. He moved to Dortmund because of the release clause and the huge money they offered to his dad and Raiola. I don't actually believe he ever had any interest moving to United which is probably the same case for Bellingham.
 

FlawlessThaw

most 'know it all' poster
Joined
Oct 26, 2005
Messages
29,603
He's a scouse bastard, probably.
Looks very much that way. He’s a class player but we need a lot more reinforcements than just in centre mid so would make no sense to blow it all on one player
 

LawCharltonBest

Enjoys watching fox porn
Joined
May 17, 2012
Messages
15,391
Location
Salford
Easy to say when it looks like we have no chance of signing him anyway - but something about him doesn't sit right with me. I wouldn't be too disheartened if United don't get him
 

Josh 76

Full Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2018
Messages
5,596
They’re man marking him off the pitch. I remember when Sancho was hanging out with Rashford and Lingard during England duty while he was at Dortmund.
Henderson was tongue in cheek when said “no he’s not going Real Madrid”

Football changes so quickly. England lose to France and Dortmound lose in the CL next round. Bellingham will be old news.
 

mav_9me

Full Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
12,487
This signing doesn't make any sense to me unless the plan is to move Bruno Fernandes on.

Bellingham isn't best suited to playing a deeper role in midfield imo. The game against USA exposed his lack of ability in that role where some would argue that a player like Yanus Musa was better. So in the next game, Southgate dropped Mason Mount for Henderson, which gave Bellingham more freedom as the most advanced player in a midfield 3, with Rice and Henderson occupying the two deeper roles in midfield.

We should also bear in mind that when comparing Bellingham to the likes of Keane and Vieira, is that they played football in a different era. The Premier League right now has adopted a concept of defending methodically from the front, which wasn't the case in the time of Vieira and Keane. And it wasn't until the arrival of coaches like Brendan Rodgers and Pochettino, that the change in approach was becoming more obvious and would later become widespread with the influx of numerous other coaches in the top flight.

So what we need is a deep roaming playmaker imo, to occupy a deeper role next to the more positionally disciplined Casemiro. And that deep roaming playmaker will be the one who will be expected to provide the craft and guile in midfield, which will help us effectively build play from the defensive to the middle thirds, and also thwart the opponents methodical pressing game by evading/resisting pressure in confined spaces. Bellingham isn't that player but the Argentine lad at Benfica (Enzo Fernandez) might be.

Bellingham would suit Klopp's direct approach and I can see why he'd want Bellingham. But I think for us it would cause a unnecessary headache for a ridiculous amount of money unless the plan was to sell Bruno Fernandes.
This is what it comes down to for me as well. Granted I do not watch him at Dortmund, but for England his best work has come in a similar role/similar areas to the ones that we occupy with Bruno, and I can't see either of them not wanting to be a starter, so it does feel like a no go for us.
I agree with this. Bellingham is just not exactly what we need now for us to be spending 150m or even more than 100m unless if we are planning to move Bruno on and change to 433 or midfield flat 3. Bellingham suits to play in midfield flat 3 of 433 or 352 in the role where Pogba played in midfield 3 at Juventus years ago.

We need playmaker to play in the deeper role like FDJ or may be Enzo to suit with ETH's system and the current squad. We already have the defensive midfield who can breakup play or winning the ball back like Casemiro, attacking mid who has end product like Bruno. What we need is that deep playmaker.
He's definitely a huge talent, I just don't think he's the midfielder we need right now. I agree with your bolded bit to a degree, I just think that we actually are lacking in the control department quite significantly. While the Jude types have their own value, we do actually need one of the controllers.
yeah we do, agree completely

he overlaps with Bruno too much to justify the outlay
As long as we get Enzo or FDJ I could care less where Bellingham goes.

He's a very good player but we don't need to be spending that much on a player when we need a striker.
All our focus should be on Enzo Fernandez because everyone that couldn't bring Bellingham to their club would focus Enzo as their alternative to Jude
Could not agree more.

We need a controller in there like Eriksen, Kroos, what Scholes was for us.

I see too much of Gerrard in Bellingham to work with Bruno.
 

troylocker

Full Member
Joined
May 2, 2019
Messages
2,570
Well Camavinga has certainly done more in his career. I even think that Musah kid had a better game against Bellingham in the group stages. Big test for Bellingham against France, if he does it in that game I think people can start thinking he's the real deal. United, in particular, have been stung with overhyped Dortmund talent before.
How has Camavinga done more? He's the 3rd/4th choice CM/DM at Real Madrid, he's started 2 games in the CL (Sheriff and Leipzig - the only two group stage losses RM has had the last 2 seasons) and he's fewer caps for France despite being a year older and they tend to play worse when he's been on lately (his last two games were against Denmark (loss 0-2) and Tunisia in the WC (Lost 0-1)). All he's shown between some glimpses of greatness is that he is still work in progress. He still has a long way to go before he's the finished article.

Do you really think Musah is a better player than Bellingham?

I think any WC game is a big test for a 19 year old, and none of them are make or break tests.
If Bellingham doesn't have a dominating performance against the reigning world champions, is that defining for him at 19 do you think?
He's played 176 games in his senior career as a professional footballer, the trajectory he's had in those games defines him as a footballer, not this one game. He's the real deal no matter how the France game goes.

I don't even know why I let myself wind up, because we're not getting him. Just really like the player.
 

KiD MoYeS

Good Craig got his c'nuppins
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
32,987
Location
Love is Blind
How has Camavinga done more? He's the 3rd/4th choice CM/DM at Real Madrid, he's started 2 games in the CL (Sheriff and Leipzig - the only two group stage losses RM has had the last 2 seasons) and he's fewer caps for France despite being a year older and they tend to play worse when he's been on lately (his last two games were against Denmark (loss 0-2) and Tunisia in the WC (Lost 0-1)). All he's shown between some glimpses of greatness is that he is still work in progress. He still has a long way to go before he's the finished article.

Do you really think Musah is a better player than Bellingham?

I think any WC game is a big test for a 19 year old, and none of them are make or break tests.
If Bellingham doesn't have a dominating performance against the reigning world champions, is that defining for him at 19 do you think?
He's played 176 games in his senior career as a professional footballer, the trajectory he's had in those games defines him as a footballer, not this one game. He's the real deal no matter how the France game goes.

I don't even know why I let myself wind up, because we're not getting him. Just really like the player.
Camavinga played an important part in Real Madrid's Champions League success. Which is more than Bellingham has achieved in his career thus far.

I didn't say Musah was a better player than Bellingham but he certainly had a better performance than him in their recent game against each other.

I'm not saying anything controversial at all.
 

RedorDead21

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2013
Messages
9,216
I don’t think us or Liverpool will be spending that until our ownership is resolved. I don’t really care who buys us I think they all have more negatives than positives and it’s becoming a case if you can’t beat em join em! A billionaire with unlimited funds with great morals and no
Skeletons in the cupboard sure…but if not…let’s just get back to the top. Once the PL let them in…it became inevitable.
 

stefan92

Full Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2021
Messages
6,518
Supports
Hannover 96
:lol: yes even if he wanted to come we should turn him down, cutting your nose off to spite your face is always the most adult way of handling a situation.
Exactly... Bellingham was smart enough to decline a bad United offer for a better career choice. Considering United's track record of signing players that don't make smart decisions and then create issues (Ronaldo, di Maria the most prominent ones) you should actually be looking for players who have that ability and who only accept a United offer if it is the right choice for their career.
 

Reapersoul20

Can Anderson score? No.
Joined
Aug 13, 2006
Messages
12,155
Location
Jog on
Bellingham is a prime candidate for the English media heaping loads of pressure on him until he inevitably starts "underperforming" at age 23, and everyone suddenly decides he is shite.

Do not want.
 

amolbhatia50k

Sneaky bum time - Vaccination status: dozed off
Joined
Nov 8, 2002
Messages
95,792
Location
india
Lot of consistent noise about him and Liverpool so I think that's where he'll go. I'm not sure Madrid need him as much. People earlier used to think Liverpool couldnt spent 100m on a player and they did last summer. He's exactly what they need given their midfield is not great.
 

Rozay

Master of Hindsight
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
27,201
Location
...
We’ll if you don’t want them to continue to be the dominant force of our league you should give a fook
That isn’t the automatic outcome if he goes there. We can get a different midfielder and be just fine.
 

Red in STL

Turnover not takeover
Joined
Dec 1, 2022
Messages
9,918
Location
In Bed
Supports
The only team that matters
I don't see where Liverpool get the money for him from.
You do realize that FSG have serious money, they just haven't thrown it around as some might have expected, OK they aren't worth as much as Dubai or Saudi but they aren't short of a bob or three!

John Henry, who is just one of the group is estimated to be worth $3,6 billion, LeBron James of NBA fame is part of the group as well, they also own multiple other sports teams as well as the biggest TV station in New England
 

Rolaholic

Full Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2016
Messages
11,163
Bellingham is a prime candidate for the English media heaping loads of pressure on him until he inevitably starts "underperforming" at age 23, and everyone suddenly decides he is shite.

Do not want.
Every young talent gets massively hyped nowadays and are valued at a premium by clubs all over. Just look at the lovefest for the likes of Pedri and Gavi in Spain despite the latter not being anywhere near all that.

Bellingham is still a terrific talent and the best midfield talent the country has produced in recent years bar Foden.

He'll be a star for whoever signs him next mark my words. Ticks all the boxes already at such a young age.

Him, Pedri and Musiala will be the big names to watch from that generation of young players.
 

dinostar77

Full Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2014
Messages
7,285
We fecked it up by not having a great record of giving 17 year olds many minutes with the first team. Same with every top talent. We didn't guarantee him minutes. Very understandable decision by him to go to Dortmund, where he's been starting matches for Dortmund since he signed for them...
Same with Haaland.
Same with a young pogba and pique.
 

keithsingleton

Full Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2012
Messages
1,364
Location
Salford
That isn’t the automatic outcome if he goes there. We can get a different midfielder and be just fine.
Sadly being fine not good enough to win the league these days. We’re so far behind the noisy neighbours it’s getting very frustrating. They don’t need Bellingham to win the league though, all it means if they get him the points margin will be bigger.
 

Remember the geese

Full Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2018
Messages
7,089
Location
Northampton
Sadly being fine not good enough to win the league these days. We’re so far behind the noisy neighbours it’s getting very frustrating. They don’t need Bellingham to win the league though, all it means if they get him the points margin will be bigger.
It doesn't mean that at all. They've had far better midfielders than him in the last 5 or 6 years.
 

Rozay

Master of Hindsight
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
27,201
Location
...
Sadly being fine not good enough to win the league these days. We’re so far behind the noisy neighbours it’s getting very frustrating. They don’t need Bellingham to win the league though, all it means if they get him the points margin will be bigger.
It means no such thing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.