Liverpool transfer hopes shattered as Chelsea make huge statement over Bellingham move

Liverpool are about to be blown out of the Jude Bellingham water by Chelsea, who are considering maybe possibly having a word over a potential transfer.

Ring my Bell
‘Chelsea have not been put off trying to convince Jude Bellingham to consider a move to Stamford Bridge,’ begins the single least convincing transfer exclusive ever conceived.

It is only through sources as excellent as those that Matt Law boasts that the Daily Telegraph can land such a scoop. Chelsea are thinking about having a word with a very good footballer to try and persuade them to think about joining. It’s about five rungs below ‘monitoring developments’ and not at all far off merely ‘registering an interest’, which when it comes to Bellingham is about as redundant as it gets.

‘Borussia Dortmund star Bellingham will get another chance to impress his suitors in Wednesday night’s Champions League last-16 first-leg tie against Chelsea in Germany,’ reads a quite humorous second paragraph.

Does excellent midfielder Bellingham really need ‘another chance to impress his suitors’ at this stage? And why would he bother trying to ‘impress his suitors’ when interest from said suitors only amounts to them not being ‘put off trying to convince’ him to ‘consider a move’?

Chelsea are the ones punching in this prospective relationship, not Bellingham.

‘There is a recognition within Chelsea that they are not among the favourites to sign Bellingham, who is also a target of Liverpool, Manchester City and Real Madrid, and missing out on qualification for the Champions League would make their task even harder.’

How sagacious of Chelsea to realise Manchester City and Real Madrid might have a better chance. And even Liverpool, who have pretty much thrown themselves at Bellingham instead of merely contemplating asking whether he fancies the move.

‘Missing out on qualification for the Champions League would make their task’ impossible, by the way.

‘But that will not stop Chelsea doing everything in their power to make themselves part of the conversation over Bellingham in the summer,’ continues Law, who doubles down in his attempt to make the utterly banal and vague sound important and newsworthy. Is this genuinely all the story amounts to: Chelsea just wanting to make sure they’re involved in speculation over a big transfer?

Chelsea ‘are expected to keep open the lines of communication to the teenager’s advisors’ and ‘it is believed they would be prepared to move heaven and earth to try to sign him,’ which is a huge statement that collapses upon the slightest scrutiny. The addition of a ‘to try’ really does undermine the pretence of Chelsea needing to be taken seriously over Bellingham. They won’t ‘move heaven and earth to sign him’ (silly website not far from here). They’ll ‘move heaven and earth’ to give it a go.

Law’s final paragraph on Bellingham offers one last qualified declaration of intent: that Chelsea are ‘expected to try to hold further talks’ with Bellingham and ‘those around the player’.

It will be hard for the most in-demand player in world football to resist a club who are: ‘trying to convince’ him ‘to consider a move’; are desperate to simply be ‘part of the conversation’ over the transfer; and will probably give negotiations another go at some point.

It does not feel like a coincidence that the word ‘try’ or ‘trying’ appears five times in Law’s copy on an absolute non-story.

You think that I’m strong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong
With all that taken into account, this aggregated headline from the Daily Mirror website elicited a chuckle from Mediawatch:

‘Chelsea take strong Jude Bellingham transfer stance after £600m Todd Boehly’s spree’

It is indeed a rehash of the Telegraph story which struggled to mask just how not ‘strong’ whatsoever Chelsea’s ‘transfer stance’ over Bellingham is.

Cody red
‘Cody Gakpo broke Jurgen Klopp ‘golden rule’ just before scoring his first Liverpool goal’ – Liverpool Echo.

Now Jurgen Klopp never actually called it a ‘golden rule’ – making those quote marks a little questionable – but the Liverpool manager did indeed once say he “told my players not to touch the ‘This Is Anfield’ sign until they win something!”. And Gakpo, having joined in January, has not.

But Richard Garnett is sorely wrong if he thinks Gakpo touching the sign ‘leaves a few unanswered questions’. He poses each of the following head-scratchers: ‘Was Gakpo aware of the rule or has Klopp changed it since the club became successful again? Has he done it before? Perhaps more importantly, will Gakpo dare to repeat the trick after scoring his debut goal in the game that followed?’

All this because a man touched a sign.

Dirty Harry
‘Nights like the one in the San Siro can only reinforce Kane’s belief that he has to move on if he is to challenge seriously for major titles’ – Matt Barlow, Daily Mail.

Kane had one off-target shot, did not create a single chance and registered the lowest passing accuracy of any player for either team. Perhaps he does need ‘to move on if he is to challenge seriously for major titles,’ but saying it after ‘nights like the one in the San Siro’ when he was one of Tottenham’s most ineffective players rather undermines the point.

Baffling headline of the day
‘Jenna Ortega beams with a personalised football shirt as she’s joined by lookalike mother Natalie to watch PSG take on Bayern Munich in Paris’ – MailOnline.

‘Lookalike mother’?! FFS.