02 Sep 2024 08:17:20
Hi Ed001. Hope you’ve caught up on sleep now.
Quick question- I recall recently that you were criticising Edwards during his first stint at LFC for handing out long contracts to players. I forget who this would have been though. Yet now everyone is clamouring for him to do the same and criticising Hughes for not doing this. What is different?
I understood that putting players on high wages when their performances may not be guaranteed could be seen as risky.
{Ed001's Note - what long contracts are people clamouring for? People are asking for him to extend Virgil and Salah by a year or two, that is not handing out long contracts. Or are you referring to Trent? If so, that is one player, a special case, who fully deserves the contract.}
02 Sep 2024 09:07:09
I would give VVD and Salah 3 year contracts. Salah brings in enough revenue to more than justify it. Salah is our one superstar.
02 Sep 2024 09:34:10
Tha Saudis want Salah whether he is is 32 or 35.
If the club were to offer Salah a good 3 year contract there is nothing stopping the club selling him to Saudi for a decent fee during that contract if his performances do fall off a cliff.
02 Sep 2024 10:02:51
If we want to keep them, they'll be offered new contracts and then it's up to them to accept. If we don't want to keep them, we won't offer them new contracts. It's really that simple.
Just enjoy the football lads. Virgil, Trent, Salah and Slot seem to be totally calm about all of this. It's only a minority of fans on the internet who seem deeply troubled by it. We're 9/ 9 points in the league and haven't even let in a goal whilst scoring 7 of our own. Life's good!
02 Sep 2024 10:12:26
Best post in ages @MK. Absolutely spot on.
02 Sep 2024 10:18:25
I agree MK. Can we focus on the positives please?
Why do we always have to focus on the potential negatives?
We have just battered our rivals and are top of the league without conceding a goal.
At the end of last season, according to the same posters, VVD and Salah were past it and Trent was a luxury player that only played Hollywood passes and could be replaced by Bradley. Now, they’re angry that they’re not being offered new contracts.
I actually would like all 3 to be extended but as you say the club will do that if they want to keep them, and if they don’t they won’t.
If this is to be their last season we are on track so far to make it a good one!
02 Sep 2024 10:49:08
Nice one, MKS. We can offer what we think is fair to the players but there are no guarantees they will accept them either so that's stuff out of our control as fans, at the end of the day. Let's enjoy the football cos I know I am.
02 Sep 2024 10:59:34
Staying on positives I’d be more than happy for Diaz to prove I was wrong about replacing him this summer - if he can keep the end product up he will be a fantastic player to have! Would worry about it making Barcelona interested but luckily they look like persisting on treating their finances like a kid with their parents credit card.
02 Sep 2024 10:59:56
Navy who on this thread said " VVD and Salah were past it and Trent was a luxury player that only played Hollywood passes and could be replaced by Bradley"?
I find it interesting how we can have a massive overblown thread about Rabiot who doesn't even play for the club on here last week but we're not allowed to mention 3 players who do play for the clubs contracts.
I must have missed the EDs saying no contract talks were allowed.
02 Sep 2024 11:36:31
I don't think the players are calm about it when they are making comments publicly, it's almost like a hint to the club. That's the way I look at it at least.
02 Sep 2024 12:11:18
Spot on Salah.
02 Sep 2024 12:14:32
I don't think the club is going to announce that it doesn't want the three players or that wages could be an issue. I don't think the players are going to announce that they want to leave or how much they want and for how long if they were to stay.
Not yet anyway.
The club will do what is best for the club and the players what is best for them and their families but the feelings of fans will be less of a consideration.
02 Sep 2024 12:21:23
I agree, Salah. I did read somewhere that Trent said he would not have his situation played out in public so everyone needed to jog off. As for Salah and VVD speaking in public, they could have just swatted the topic down and moved on.
The problem now is that now that it is in public and regardless of the result of games, this will become a public narrative and you know how the media acts with an active narrative. They will never let it go even if things get settled.
02 Sep 2024 12:29:10
How can you think Loosing Salah, Van Dijk and Trent at once for free is what the club thinks is best for the club Rigsby? You can't be serious man! The club under FSG will always find ways to penny pinch, these 3 are the 3 best players, so I think only Trent will get a New contract offer sadly because giving 33 and 34 year olds top contracts with no re-sale value is bad buisness, despite them being the best players we have had for years.
02 Sep 2024 12:38:24
Agree with Salah here, (our Salah, not THE Salah) . I would t say they're calm, in fact, from VVDs comments a few weeks back, I'd say he came across somewhat frustrated by the lack of communication. We also have to consider the wider picture, I assume these three players are extremely well liked in the dressing room. If it's seen how the club are treating them with the silence, lack of offers etc, it wouldn't exactly be great for the morale of other players - "if that's how they treat their star player, what can I expect" sort of thing.
02 Sep 2024 13:35:47
@JK - nobody on this thread said it. LOTS of people on this forum said it at the end of the season. And frankly to say otherwise is Donald Trump levels of revisionism.
Diaz had no end product. Salah was past it and should be cashed in while we could. I am not going to bother going back and finding the posts as we’ve all got better things to do with our time. But anyone that’s one this forum as much as you and I are will know these posts were there.
Like I say mate I would like them to all get extensions. But we seem to “flip-flop” (word of the summer! ) as a fanbase from one hysteria to another.
02 Sep 2024 14:12:11
Navy sorry mate i thought you meant this thread. I agree that posters have written off Salah and VVD in the past but its an opinions game and opinions change like the tides.
In regards to the Trent "Hollywood passes" that was Walter. You could give Walter a bag full of money and he would complain that the bag was too heavy lol but that's him and i wouldn't change him for the world.
It's been a great start to the season mate and we look really united (pardon the pun) and are controlling games really well.
I think if Salah doesn't get interviewed yesterday and mentions his contract then its not even a topic last night or today.
02 Sep 2024 15:06:11
"It's a Marathon not a Sprint"- Bill Shankly.
02 Sep 2024 15:18:51
Hey Navy, at least these people ahev back bone to make a stand. What about you? Captain obvious, hind sight is always 20/ 20!
02 Sep 2024 15:42:45
All good JK, top man. I agree on the salah interview point too.
I have to say I really knew very little about Slot when we signed him and only had ed002’s positive review to go on, but so far I have been very impressed. The results have been great, performances have been very good at times, he comes across very well in interviews and his interview on sky yesterday about how they targeted united shows a small insight into his intelligence and understanding of the game.
02 Sep 2024 17:04:02
I said Salah had lost some pace but also said he was technically good enough to not rely on his pace. The problem with Klopp’s system is it leant heavily on pace. Slot’s system isn’t as reliant on raw pace and volume of chances.
I said Gordon was a better finisher than Diaz, that may still be true but Diaz is bang in form so far this season so he’s currently humbling me. It’s early days though.
I’m quite happy to be wrong.
02 Sep 2024 17:37:18
Salah will still be a good PL player when he's 35 imo. The club should just offer him a bloody deal.
02 Sep 2024 18:37:36
Why do people say “focus on the positives” when can we criticise the club? If we do during the transfer window or the off season there is always an excuse. Just face it the club have messed up on the contract front. Or just confirm, they won’t be offered new deals. Then we can move forward, the air of uncertainty is where toxicity emerges. A great Liverpool win has been shrouded in off field issues and it needs resolving.
02 Sep 2024 18:53:17
I didn't say losing them for free is what the club thinks is best for the club, Fiskesprett. Where have you got that from?
Keeping all three might be what the club thinks is best for the club.
We're talking about the future and plans of people we know almost nothing about.
Hunan nature tells me all parties will do what is best for themselves though.
You not wanting them to go for free is irrelevant, Fisk. The three of them might even want to go on a free or the club might unwilling to give them what they want.
We don't know.
02 Sep 2024 21:11:08
Frode why have the club messed up on the contract front? Surely they have done exactly what they intended to do, or they wouldn’t have done it.
I don’t agree with letting 3 of your best players run down their contracts and from the outside looking in it looks like a mistake but we know literally nothing about what the club’s or the players’ intentions are so to say they messed up is just not true.
Unless you’re telling me that the contracts have been in Edwards’ draw all summer and he forgot to hand them over. Or perhaps the dog ate them?
One way or another it will get sorted and we will move on with or without these players.
02 Sep 2024 22:23:21
Wish I could find the article as it was shared on social media but there was something I read recently from Bobby that describes his last few months before he announced he was leaving. Basically what he described sounded like there was an elephant in the room when he was around. And then he was being played less, he said even it seemed like Klopp was avoiding him.
Truth is in the eye of the beholder of course, but it seems likea similar story may play out here with these 3. I wish different of course, and just think it's far better to be transparent and up front.
02 Sep 2024 22:26:11
Frode, why should the club confirm that they won't be offered new deals? What makes you think that the club isn't thinking of moving forward?
There'll be reasons the club have not revealed their plans There'll be reasons players Salah and VVD have said a few things and there'll be reasons why TAA has said mind your own business.
You might not like the uncertainty but that isn't a priority for the club and the players.
02 Sep 2024 23:28:25
When does the Saudi transfer window close?
{Ed001's Note - I think it is the 6th.}
02 Sep 2024 23:32:31
The supposed off field issues would really only cast a shroud over the win at the weekend if that's your mentality. It didn't affect my sheer delight in the slightest.
3 wins, no goals conceded and we just slapped our bitter rivals all over their leaky stadium. But that seems to be irrelevant.
I guess I just don't get the desire to grasp the dark cloud from the silver lining.
03 Sep 2024 08:15:03
The worry for me about not offering the 3 players a new contract (I suspect we've been speaking to Trent already though) is what it would cost to replace these players. The likelihood is that we'd need to spend a lot on new players when VVD and Salah probably have a other couple of seasons in them. Seems like a huge waste.
I'd be offering VVD a 2 year deal, Salah 1 or 2 and Trent 5 years. Then I'd be working on a new Konate contract to stop the same issue happening next season.
All you do by not offering contracts early enough is put the power in the hands of the player and risk annoying them.
{Ed025's Note - of their greedy agents you mean Brommers..