Rumour Mongering: Chelsea Playing Catch-Up in Jude Bellingham Race

Liverpool need to refresh their midfield options in the summer of 2023. Liverpool’s first choice target for doing so is 19-year-old Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham, who is likely to cost in excess of £100M when everything’s said and done.

These are as close to certain statements as once can find in the world of transfer rumours. What also seems a certainty is that the Reds are one of the frontrunners to land the young star. They might even be outright favourites. But they aren’t the only ones interested.

There’s also Real Madrid, fresh off beating Liverpool to the signing of another midfielder, Aurélien Tchouaméni, in 2022. And according to The Telegraph, there’s Chelsea, too, with owner Todd Boehly said to have directed the cub to make Bellingham a top target.

However, Chelsea are coming to the chase and battling clubs who have courted the player since before last summer. As such, they have been told they will have to play catch-up and and that Liverpool and Real Madrid are Bellingham’s preferred destinations.

There’s also the spectre of Manchester City, the sportswashing front for Abu Dahbi with access to limitless funding by way of questionable sponsorship deals with companies that may or may not actually exist and that allow the club to skirt financial regulations.

Whatever happens next, then, the real winner in all this may be Dortmund, who stand in line to receive a quite massive payday next year for the consensus best young English midfielder and a player signed from Birmingham for £25M in the summer of 2020.