Well he wants to move, we at the start didn't want to sell (apparently), but as things moved on it was clear that we couldn't change his mind. It is the nature of modern football, the player has all the power. The best thing for us to do is to get the best fee and re-invest. Yes we get screwed in that we lose a top player, but we have to hopefully limit the impact by getting a large fee and finding players who want to be here (for now anyway). If we just bench him then we don't get a large fee and with his contract losing another 6 months, nobody having seen him play for 6 months and no doubt a new central defender getting plaudits elsewhere will just lower his value and screws us both on and off the pitch as he also isn't contributing to the team getting points.
Better than getting mugged by the fee. Make him sweet for a while longer. Anyhow, lets hope we get a 'real' offer so we don't have to play this painful game.
Well yeah if the fee is low (not sure what counts as low anymore tbh, like £40m?) then we can say we have been mugged, but all the reports are around the 50-60m mark which, I think, is a world record fee for a defender. I don't think VVD has been that bad and I think people are judging his performances harshly this year because of the summer. But the fact is that he wants out and there seems to be a number of teams who want him, it is a position where we are pretty strong anyway and the money raised by selling him could be used elsewhere in the squad. If one of the teams does come and slap down £50m+ then I think we would be stupid not to accept it. The same as the summer though tbh, as you say lets just hope there is an actual bid this time. Still think if anyone but Liverpool made an official bid he would've gone then.
If L'pool made the biggest offer, say £60m, I wouldn't be too proud to take it. I'd just spend longer wishing him to fail. But, hopefully someone else is more desperate than them.
Well, if the fee has gone down 15M, then that would be daft. We stood our ground, we suffered. Now I just want to see Jack given his rightful place in the team.
The fee can't have gone down, because no other fee was ever agreed. £70 mill is just a number that was bandied about. God knows what a "fair" or "realistic" price is for a defender in todays messed up market, but if it brings us enough to buy in one or more quality attacking options, then we should do it. We can get by without Van Dijk; what we need is goals.
Not this window. I’d be ok with Maya, Jack, Wes and back up from the youngsters and Beddie..... unless we are planning on three CBs regularly, then we’d need one.
Stephens, Hoedt, Yoshi should be enough until the summer imo. Certainly no immediate need for a replacement.
See my original thought was the same in not needing one but I have called for a back 3 and that would scupper any idea of seeing that regularly. Be nice to see it for a few games in a row before January...
