17 Jun 2024 02:49:31
Under new ownership and specially under Klopp we were prepared to let players fulfill or run down their contract and give them free transfer.
Lallana, milner, keita, Clyne
Can, gini, firmino, Ox are just a few
It seems we may go same route with Salah
We consider this smart business or otherwise?
17 Jun 2024 04:05:03
I'm sure it's not a strategy to let players walk for nothing. But when you weigh up everything, I guess there are occasions where the club are prepared to let it happen.
17 Jun 2024 04:38:36
I think it's more a case of not having better alternative options rather than a purely business decision.
Whether it be Klopps's preference/ loyalty for a player, a lack of suitable replacements or a lack of funds (or indeed a combination of those last two) or a lack of a buyer of a player who is on higher wages than anyone else is willing to match or simply too high a price tag, we have not been able to sell to buy in the way City have. [I think you can remove Milly from that list, he was on a rolling contract and we rung him dry in terms of ability and effort]
Personally, I think we should sell Salah for anything approaching 50mil from the Saudis and indeed sell Diaz if he has a strong bid put in for him.
For all the accusations levelled at City, they have consistently sold players for good fees and been able to reinvest. We haven't (with the exception of Coutinho) and had to squeeze all we could from our players. We've punched above our weight with Klopp but he was also exceptional. We need to be able to sell players for a decent fee in order to be able to reinvest.
In that vein, I think we got lucky getting the combined fees we did for Fabinho and Henderson. I am not sure they would have gone anywhere, let alone for the fees they did and in turn we managed to heavily invest in the midfield. Of course FSG added funds but selling is huge part of us staying sustainable.
17 Jun 2024 07:14:54
All of them shoyld have been sold except bfr their contract ended in my opinion . bad management really. people sayin on this site keep Salah this year n let him go on a free next year , like it's nothing to lose millions of ££s. doesn't make any financial sense.
17 Jun 2024 07:38:37
You can't force players to be sold or to sign new contracts. Clubs don't own players anymore. You can thank Marc Bosman for that.
An alternative is handing out long contracts to players like Chelsea have done but the downside is possibly giving them a comfort zone and taking some of their hunger away.
17 Jun 2024 09:31:07
Jean Marc Bosman was the test case, but it was EU law. He just happened to be the player to test the law.
Quite right too, once you fulfil a contract, why should a team/ business have any hold over you?
17 Jun 2024 09:35:52
The thing is though @Strom that both the player and the club agree to the contract and both parties will be aware of the potential outcomes when the contract ends. You’d have to say that the club goes into these things with their eyes wide open and fully aware of the potential consequences.
17 Jun 2024 10:02:56
Salah is still comfortably in the top 5 players in the Premier League though.
This isn’t case of keeping someone far too long like with Keita, Lallana, Clyne, Ox etc. Salah is still producing the goods. Same as Bobby was right up until his last game.
I don’t understand the desperation to get a few million in the bank instead of enjoying one more year of arguably the best (certainly the most consistent) player we’ve had for 30+ years.
17 Jun 2024 10:18:33
I love this conversation tho. really puts the idea of "loyalty" to the test lol.
17 Jun 2024 12:42:34
It's a stupid strategy, especially when we are a club that relies on sales for funding of transfers.
17 Jun 2024 16:30:39
It’s never a “strategy”.
How can it be?
You sign a player to a contract. If they want to sign an extension, that’s up to them. If they want to see their contract out, that’s up to them.
If they want to join another club which has made an acceptable offer, that’s up to them.
The player always has the right to stick to their contract. If the club wants to sell them then the player has the right to say “no”.
17 Jun 2024 17:41:07
Which "new" ownership are you talking about? Coz the last time I checked, FSG were our owners for 5 years plyus till they hirded Klopp.
17 Jun 2024 17:48:48
We could put all the players on zero hour contracts.
17 Jun 2024 18:38:45
I agree with most that it was not a stratergy rather the outcome of different reasons. but one of them was also asking too high for player who were not in our long term plans. or holding them too long.
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Any ways thanks for the inputs. regarding salah. I will be happy for him to stay if his goals help us entertain and win some silver wear. And then he gets a fat sign on fees with our best wishes.
It would also be good to give him 2 years contract with low fix and high performance related bonus
New Ownership I meant the current owners if it was not obvious. E.