Nah, I hate cops shows.. But as long as you don't accuse me of being "H" from Steps, I don't mind....
I agree they behaved despicably, but maybe they aren't commenting on their overall behaviour but just that they did everything RIGHT to get their man. Unfortunately the press worship the the top 6 clubs, report on them like even those who don't support them actually give a toss. Actually we don't care if their main striker is injured for a championship game, but they don't see that. The media are doing a good job to kill the game
Just as we continue to use the £ to lure players away from teams in lower divisions and abroad. We're a medium-sized fish; we prey on smaller fish without a second thought, but we're also the prey of larger fish, because that's the ecosystem we are in. Liverpool has fewer natural predators, but as evidenced by the Suarez/Coutinho transfers, "fewer" doesn't mean none. If the desire is for top-to-bottom changes to the world football financial system, let's talk. If the desire is to whine that Liverpool treats us the way we treat Celtic or Basel or Salzburg, it's more than a bit self-serving.
Could you provide a link to secret hotel meetings we've orchestrated with other teams players who are still under contract, and have not been given permission to speak to us, because I think I may well have missed it. Seriously. The moan about Liverpool's behaviour is totally valid, and not just a big fish small fish scenario.
They shouldn't have done what they did, in no small part because it was stupid and unnecessary. But we're acting as if we were uniquely disadvantaged; how much of a difference does it actually make that Klopp met with him personally, rather than secretly negotiating a contract with a player through their agent before making an offer to their team, something we have done and practically every team at this level does? Does anyone actually believe that the hotel meeting made any difference, that Van Dijk wouldn't have happily traipsed to Liverpool, with its CL berth and trebled wages, even if he'd never so much as seen Jurgen Klopp in a photo?
Damn. When you say it like that, well it's depressing. So the real issue I have is the absolute contempt VvD had shown us, but really he has just done first hand what they usually do through the agents. Damn again, that does not make me feel better.
Essentially I don’t disagree but the pyramid sales scheme we’re in has a favoured few (£ riches) with far far fewer predators e.g. LFC have probably only 2x Spanish clubs now; MC in past, maybe MU but probably not now. We did feed on the “Celtic’s” but that’s well gone. Our feeders are numerous, probably 100’s. Whining? Well I think there’s ways to conduct & not. LFC & VD ****ed us. Not sure we’ve done similar but maybe you know better? Edit: just read your 2nd post which I do agree with & therefore makes a mockery of the league system. Leicester will never happen again with the way it’s set now. Shame. Big shame. Ps. I saw a league on financial clout a few years ago - virtually mirrored the league. Only a few teams were a few places out, including Saints.
Oh, feeding on the Celtics et al is definitely not gone, beyond our own reticence to spend. We, the middle-class of the Premier League, have benefited even more than the Liverpools in terms of the feeding frenzy. We're one of the richest clubs in the world, richer than the likes of Sevilla, or Benfica, or Lyon, clubs all with rich European histories; Liverpool has always been one of the richest clubs in the world. Our pool is bigger; theirs is mostly the same, beyond the size of the wedge of cash they now have to hand teams like us. And we have done similar. Hell, last summer we tapped up a player we didn't even want to sign on a permanent deal. Contacted him/his agent, then went to the team and told them that their player wanted to join us...and asked if we could loan him (was a Scottish fullback...I'll post the link as soon as I can remember the kid's name. Their manager called us out on it).
No, it's that the complaints are directed at the wrong place, in my eyes. Liverpool is doing what a team in their position does. We are doing what a team in our position does. If one wants that to change, it'd have to be real systemic change; playing within the rules as currently constituted is such an onerous burden that no one does it. Complaining that Liverpool doesn't handcuff themselves when we don't handcuff ourselves is ultimately pointless. There are two factors at play: - The formalized system of making offers and then negotiating contracts with players frankly makes no sense. No team is going to spend weeks going to and fro with bids without any idea of whether a deal can be reached with the player. Hence, back-channeling is damned near universal...agreeing a fee is generally the last step, not the first. I have no idea how to change this, barring seriously harsh penalties for tapping up, because tapping up simply makes sense. Maybe a Tinder-style app where players can swipe right on a team to indicate that they'd be happy to join them, and if the purchasing team also swipes right, they then enter negotiations with the selling club? **** me, that started as a joke but it's actually the closest I've come to a solution, and yeah that's sad. - The fact that contracts can be ripped up at any time, the massive fees due to agents (relative to the fees earned by agents in other sports), and the manner in which those fees are earned, incentivizes transfers. The issue here is that I don't believe that either UK or EU contract law would allow for the one real solution: making contracts, rather than player rights, transferable, because you'd need a UEFA-wide collective bargaining agreement. But that's basically what would need to happen: moving to a big team today wouldn't be so desirable if you were bound to the same deal until it expires, which happens to be the case for most other professional sports. That said, reform of the agent market would make a difference. In most industries and most sports, the agent is paid by the individual that they represent, usually a percentage of their salary/any peripherals they earn. In football, they are paid by a team (or in some cases, both teams) in the form of a negotiable fee when a new contract is signed. Pursuant to the previous bit, this creates a strong incentive to sign lots of contracts. If your livelihood (or at least the payments on your new Maserati) depend on frequent contract churn, you aren't going to sit on your hands and hope the team your player is contracted to decides to accept an offer. Additionally, the number of agents-that-aren't-player-agents is staggering. There is this weird market of middlemen who exist, and get paid, to connect buyers to sellers in football that simply doesn't exist anywhere else, something that has gotten a fair bit of attention with the Cardiff-Nantes drama over the Sala tragedy. Fewer fingers in pies would mean a process with far fewer players attempting to scheme behind the scenes.
