A ball has yet to be kicked during the new 2022-23 Premier League campaign, but we may have already witnessed its pivotal moment.
On June 13, champions Manchester City completed the £51million signing of Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund in a transfer which could have a huge bearing on the title race in more than just one way. City landed one of the world’s most-coveted strikers to give them the No 9 they have lacked since Sergio Aguero left, but the deal has also weakened their biggest rivals Liverpool.
Liverpool’s No 1 summer transfer target for much of the last 12 months was Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham. Reds boss Jurgen Klopp is a huge admirer of the 19-year-old England international and feels he is the ideal player to rejuvenate his ageing midfield.
However, Dortmund put the block on selling Bellingham this summer the minute they sold Haaland because they only like to cash in on one big name each year. Twelve months ago, it was Jadon Sancho, this year it is Haaland and next year it may be Bellingham, but not before then.
This forced Liverpool to rethink their summer plans, which were thrown into further disarray when Sadio Mane told them he wanted to join Bayern Munich, forcing them to spend virtually all of their transfer budget on the record £85million signing Darwin Nunez from Benfica.
A move for Bellingham will just have to wait and Klopp admitted this when he said, through gritted teeth: “He’s not on the market, so that’s the first problem with that player. Well, the only problem with that player!”
We have seen defining moments like this before and a decade ago, the 2012-13 title race was effectively decided when Manchester United beat City to the signing of Robin van Persie. It’s easy to see why Klopp wanted Bellingham this summer and captain Jordan Henderson is 32 ,Thiago Alcantara 31 and Fabinho will be 29 in October.
His preferred midfield trio were left feeling the effects of Liverpool’s quadruple quest last season and they were either knackered or not fully fit come the Champions League Final.
Klopp also liked Leeds’ Kalvin Phillips, but he ruled out getting involved in a bidding war with City for him because Bellingham is the one he really wants. City landed Haaland for a bargain £51million because that was the value of his escape clause and Bellingham has no figure inserted into his contract, which will trigger his release. Instead Dortmund reportedly value him at an eye-boggling 120million euros or £103million.
Klopp has tried to put a brave face on missing out on Bellingham this summer, pointing out that he has signed one of the most exciting young teenage midfielders around in Fabio Carvalho. He also wants to give Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones more game time this season.
But none of them do the job Bellingham does and while City have replaced the ageing Fernandinho with the human dynamo that is Phillips, Liverpool must soldier on next season with Henderson, Fabinho and Thiago.
That could be critical in the title race and if City do go on to claim a third successive Premier League, it could come back to what happened on June 13.
