Liverpool pair went to great lengths to persuade Jude Bellingham to make Anfield move

Two Liverpool players tried everything to get Jude Bellingham to sign for Liverpool. A member of recent England camps has lifted the lid on the effort that went in behind the scenes.

Conor Coady is a former Liverpool player himself. And he's told BBC Five Live all about the antics of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson, each of whom did their utmost to convince Bellingham of the merits of an Anfield switch.

Bellingham, of course, ended up picking Real Madrid. Meanwhile, Henderson himself moved on, making an ill-judged and ill-fated switch to Saudi Arabia before decamping to Ajax midway through the campaign.

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But it could all have been very different. Coady concedes that it was common knowledge that Bellingham would be on the move, and reveals the lengths the Liverpool pair went to in order to try and persuade him.

"Hendo and Trent tried with Jude," he told Mark Chapman. "At the World Cup, 100 per cent yeah. They man-marked him! They man-marked the life out of him. I think them two tried it, and to be fair you would, wouldn't you."

Coady then went on to detail some of the specifics. Chapman started to joke about the Liverpool duo cornering Bellingham every meal time, but the Leicester defender told him that was essentially accurate:

"Oh it was [every meal time]. And they were either side of him. They were sat, one was one side, one was the other. And they'd be talking about how good Liverpool is, Klopp is, and all this sort of stuff, and we'd all be sat there having something to eat, listening to them."

If Bellingham had been convinced, he might have been a little non-plussed when Jurgen Klopp announced he would be stepping down. The coach was clearly one of the selling points pushed by Henderson and Alexander-Arnold, but Liverpool is now entering the Arne Slot era.

And it has to be said that the midfielder will have no regrets so far about Real Madrid. He's a Champions League winner, and his stock keeps rising ever further — or at least it did until Euro 2024, where Gareth Southgate has so far contrived to make a team of elite talent look distinctly average.

Liverpool.com says: Credit to Henderson and Alexander-Arnold for trying! It would have been one of the all-time biggest transfer coups for Liverpool, but there was a genuine chance for a moment there, and the Reds needed to throw everything at it.

Obviously, it's a huge shame it didn't work out. Bellingham at Liverpool would have been incredible. But the midfield rebuild went ahead without him, and there have been absolutely no complaints about Alexis Mac Allister in particular following his debut Anfield campaign.