Liverpool could still end up signing Jude Bellingham during the upcoming summer transfer window, according to pundit Frank McAvennie.
What's the latest on Bellingham's future?
The future of the Borussia Dortmund midfielder is a constant talking point currently and has been for many months, in truth. He could be likely to depart his current club at the end of the season, and Liverpool have previously been considered front-runners to snap him up.
A new development earlier this week suggested that the Reds have now pulled out of the race to sign Bellingham, with the 19-year-old's price tag ultimately too big to justify paying on one player.
It is an undoubted blow, and unless the Englishman remains at Dortmund for another year, he could now end up joining a Premier League rival instead.
Could Liverpool still move for Bellingham?
Speaking to Football Insider, however, McAvennie claimed that Liverpool could yet sign Bellingham, despite it not looking likely at the moment:
"It is going to be like that until the end of the season. If they want him they have to go and get him. They need him. [Jordan] Henderson is a great player but is coming to the end of his tenure. He will be about for years but they need somebody that has got pace in that midfield.
"If they want him go and get him and do not worry about the price. The overinflated prices are something else, but they started it by paying £80m for [Virgil] Van Dijk.
"It is a situation that is not going to go away but if they want a player, go and get him. I think it might just be a ploy to distract people and he will still be speaking to them. The whispers I hear is they still want him. For them to keep up with Man City they need to sign him."
This could be an encouraging claim, suggesting that Liverpool's hope of getting their man aren't too dead in the water yet, although Dortmund will surely have to lower their asking price, likely to start at £110 million, for the move to go through.
Should nothing change and the Reds miss out on Bellingham this summer, the ideal scenario would see several new midfielders arrive at Anfield instead – Nicolo Barella, Alexis Mac Allister and Mason Mount, for example – before snapping him up next year after he's decided to stay and spend the 2023/24 season with Dortmund.
Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.
