The Northern Notebook is i‘s weekly look inside the biggest football clubs in the north of England, providing insight, analysis and news on the big issues and transfer deals
Liverpool’s hopes of landing priority target Jude Bellingham may lie in the player’s desire to follow close friend Erling Haaland and take a strategic, data-driven view of his next career move.
Bellingham is one of Europe’s most sought-after players with Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea among his Premier League suitors. Real Madrid are also making overtures to the England international, who is being valued at more than £100m by Borussia Dortmund. There is understood to be no release clause in his contract, which runs until 2025, and recruitment sources told i that a January move is “highly unlikely” for Bellingham. But such is the extent of the interest that is building in him, a transfer in 2023 now seems inevitable.
Sources in Germany have pointed to the player’s excellent relationship with Borussia Dortmund’s hierarchy as proof that he would be allowed to move for the right price if signalled his desire to leave the Bundesliga.
Liverpool are the club who have done the most extensive groundwork on the deal, tracking Bellingham’s progress for more than a year in the belief that he can be the game-changing signing that would re-energise their ageing midfield. But their alarming slide in form – they are 9th and in danger of missing out on the Champions League next season – hardly aids their cause.
The Reds’ sales pitch would be to make him a central figure who can lead the club into a next era will tempt him over what other clubs can offer.
It might just work. Bellingham’s camp have been described to i by those who have worked with them before as “meticulous” and “ultra-professional” with sporting concerns trumping monetary ones. His desire is to be one of the world’s best midfielders and any Premier League club hoping to tempt him back to England would have to meet a set of criteria that would help him reach that goal.
Liverpool have been successful in the past at winning those arguments, convincing Darwin Nunez to join them in the summer despite intense competition and making the same case to Luis Diaz, who was wanted by Spurs.
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His father Alf-Inge revealed during a Norweigan TV documentary that they devised a points system to decide his next move, making the call based on things like style of play, club history, stadium capacity and head coach. Manchester City led Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the final list.
It’s also understood Haaland’s team commissioned data analysis of the clubs who were interested in him to see which would best fit his style of play and bring the best out of him before opting for City.
Newcastle’s training ground nearly ready
There is progress on and off-the-field at Newcastle United, where the club’s players will begin using new training ground facilities in the next few weeks.
The state of the training ground has been a bone of contention on Tyneside for years but the site has been a hive of activity in recent months. Works have, among other things, expanded the restaurant, improved and enlarged the changing rooms and added a state-of-the-art HydroWorx recovery facility.
It is a temporary solution while the club look for a new purpose-built facility that they want to be up there with the best in the world.
It would incorporate a hotel and bring the Academy and women’s team onto the site as well. One plan that Dan Ashworth confirmed to i is for a “mini St James’ Park” to be built which could host under-23 games and women’s games up to the WSL.
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Sheffield United using social media to plot against opponents
Boss Paul Heckingbottom revealed after last week’s win at West Brom that they had worked out how new manager Carlos Corberan would set up his team by studying the club’s social media channels after the Baggies “put a bit too much on there”.
He later expanded on the theme: “We put a lot of time into it. There might be something seemingly insignificant which goes out, something visual or something that’s said, and it can tell you a lot if you know what you’re looking for.
“There’s someone here who does all of that, looking at stuff and finding things out through it, beforehand. If you want to win, if you enjoy what you do, then look at social media. There’s so much information out there and a lot of it is rubbish but if you can find the relevant stuff then it can be really useful.”
The Blades had worked out last season that a key opposition player wouldn’t be playing after his wife had posted a holiday picture on Instagram.
Heckingbottom then admitted mischievously that Sheffield United’s social channels routinely put out things that could sow confusion or be misleading.
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