Liverpool desperately needed a perfect summer - failing to sign Jude Bellingham means they're unlikely to get close to one

The word from inside Anfield is that Liverpool’s decision to move on from Bellingham is a practical one, born out of a need to facilitate an almost total overhaul of their midfield - as well as, in all likelihood, making at least one significant defensive signing too.

That means bringing in two, three or even four new players instead of spending the bulk of the budget on one ‘marquee’ transfer, however talented and however coveted that player may be.

And yes, certainly, a deal for Bellingham would have been eye-wateringly expensive. Liverpool’s current transfer record is the £75 million ($93m) they paid Southampton for Virgil van Dijk in January 2018 - although that could change should the add-ons included in the move which brought Darwin Nunez from Benfica last year be met - but Bellingham is expected to cost in excess of £120 million ($149m) this summer, and would command a salary that would make him one of the best-paid players in the squad too.

Many would say he is worth the outlay, given that he only turns 20 in June, that he already has four seasons and nearly 200 games worth of senior experience under his belt and that he has shown, in the Bundesliga, in the Champions League and at the World Cup, that he is capable of operating at a world-class level. Certainly, there are few more promising midfield players around, and the suggestion is that he quite fancied a move to Merseyside, too.

The trouble is, Liverpool’s team has declined to such an extent that it is feared even a player as gifted as Bellingham may not be able to fix things. They don’t just need a new midfielder, they need a new midfield, and that is a major problem, particularly as Liverpool have unhelpfully chosen this season, it seems, to fall out of the Champions League.

Without that prestige, and without that revenue, their most important summer for years has become trickier than they ever could have imagined.

It is fair to say that Liverpool are aware of, and prepared for, the criticism that will come their way in the coming days and weeks. Klopp has already remarked, pointedly, that whatever they do in the transfer market this summer will be seen as inadequate, given the paucity of their performances and returns this season.

But it is hard to avoid the feeling the club have left themselves open to such criticism, doggedly tying themselves to ambitious transfer targets while allowing a key area, the central hub, of the team to grow old, lose form, or both.

Liverpool knew they needed to upgrade their midfield a year ago. That’s why they targeted Aurelien Tchouameni, only for the France midfielder to choose Real Madrid instead. They knew that James Milner, Jordan Henderson and Thiago Alcantara were the wrong side of 30, that Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were injury-prone and entering the final year of their contracts, and that Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott, while talented, had big questions to answer if they were going to become regular starters for a team challenging for major honours.

But they did nothing, save for a bizarre loan move for Arthur Melo on the final day of the summer window, by which time Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Thiago, Jones and Keita were all on the treatment table and the season was already starting to unravel.

And now they find themselves here, the team weak, the squad weaker and the fans worried, needing to throw three treble-20s then hit a 147 just to get themselves back on track.

They’ve done it before under Klopp, of course. They’ve worked miracles, at times. They need to do so again.

Move on, though, Liverpool must and will. But what the Bellingham saga has done, besides potentially further strengthening Manchester City, is place whatever business the Reds eventually do this summer under an even greater spotlight.

Quite simply, they cannot afford even the slightest misstep now. Whoever they target, be it Mount, Barella or A.N. Other, they have to get the deal done quickly and there has to be a clear idea of where the player will fit in and what they will bring. They cannot afford to waste time ‘monitoring’, get themselves embroiled in bidding wars or sit around hoping to secure sneaky late deals on the cheap.

Klopp says he is “positive” in terms of potential incomings, and has promised that Liverpool will “definitely” spend money. He has spoken more and more candidly as this season has progressed, admitting that the time has come for his squad to undergo some major surgery. There is an understanding, an acceptance, that this is not a media or fan-led panic. These are genuine issues, issues he has seen himself, and issues which need addressing quickly and properly.

He’ll be asked about Bellingham at his Friday press conference, no doubt, and it will be interesting to see what kind of tone he strikes when he replies. Upbeat defiance or world-weary resignation? Perhaps he’ll just be glad to put the story to bed, and move swiftly on to a new series of transfer-related questions.

He knows, though, that both he and the club find themselves under major pressure now. It is not dramatic to suggest that this, reviving a dying team while trying to keep pace with rich clubs who are getting richer, is the biggest task he has faced since his arrival on Merseyside eight years ago, and that the doubts which surround Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, are getting bigger by the day.

Liverpool, remember, still need to find themselves a new sporting director, with current incumbent Julian Ward set to step down at the end of the season. Ward is still very much working, but what does it say about the club and its overall health that such a key position remains unfilled, with such a key summer approaching? Or that FSG’s ‘global search for fresh investment’, ongoing for more than five months now, is yet to yield anything of note? For a well-run club, Liverpool don’t look like they’re being run particularly well at the moment.

Maybe we will look back on articles such as this in a year’s time and laugh. Similar ones, for sure, were written at the end of the 2020-21 campaign, and what followed made plenty of people look pretty silly.

But right now, it is hard to avoid the feeling that Liverpool is a club with far more questions than answers, one moving in a direction other than forwards.

With Bellingham now a no-go, what they do next will be fascinating.