I would assume so. though new contracts being done on this basis verses getting shut of anyone on a big contract are two different things... Ok you can't say hey pep heres a deal for 50k with 60k in bonuses if you perform cos nobody would accept that but perhaps to gerrard they have done something like that going forward. The thing is i hope they move downing out even on loan now... god imagine pepe on loan while downing is playing in the firsts... surely shifting that lump on is one priority. I think it must be but i just hope rodgers was lying to downing to get performance out of him. how much is he on?
Football players should've been watching the Tour de France for a lesson in self sacrifice, correct attitude and performance in the name of a greater cause. Have to say footballers are pretty low in terms of my respect for pro athletes, selfish/me me me, money grabbers, pampered and pretty vulgar. Watching Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte push to the limits for the yellow jersey these past weeks was immense. *Waits for inevitable comeback about doping*. I would add Enrique to your list, he's not brilliant but I think he shows good commitment, Hendo too looks like he wants to raise his level for the team. It's a slow burn process but if we can put a squad together organically that will fight for every inch and to the last for each other, and not go the way of the sugar daddied, an eventual PL title would feel even more satisfying to me, stick it to them and their stranglehold of inflated transfer fees and the player-centric mercenary culture that's destroying the sport.
I hear what you're saying but you have to look at the levels of money pumped into football compared to other sports. If the same level of money was pumped into cycling and those cyclists had the opportunity to switch teams for mega deals, then I think you'll find the same happening.
the tour is an interesting one... team lead the others have to fall all over.. journeymen and one genius is one way of looking at it. self sacrifice is another. The team there is about the one shirt so its all to support whomever wears it as an objective. Similar to f1 in one regard but not in others. Football should be about the socreline but look at barca... its not 4-0 each week its how many can messi get and anyone daring to get in his way is out.... I dunno, its all alien to us as ordinary guys seeing billionaires.
But, if you are reducing outgoings be renegotiating contracts, you can't have a big earner sat there continuing to earn the big money, its disrupts the spirit within the camp. When one of the lesser players come to negotiate they will just point at the big earner and say they want something on a more equal par with that player. That doesn't mean they want the same or more, it means that if the big earner is on £80k per week and the playing negotiating is on £40k, they'll say they are better than just 50% of the first. Salary structures are in place for a reason and every employee needs to fit into it. Edit: No, that doesn't mean I agree with getting shut of anyone on a big contract. It means I agree with the principle of getting costs down and all players on a equal footing. As I said before, unless Napoli are going to pay 100% of Pepe's wages and a deal as been setup (with Napoli or Barca) for twelve months time, the loan makes no sense
I don't understand why you appear to be accepting a loan move to a side that just made £50m+ on a player sale. They can afford to pay his wages and pay you a decent fee, which you could reinvest in the squad, so I don't understand how you benefit from this move.
Fair enough. Thought it was aimed at me but loaning him is crazy. However, if Barca don't want him at this time but the club are forcing him out after buying Migs then I guess it comes down to Pepe. If he doesn't want to uproot his family to Italy, a loan with a view to moving to Spain in a year (when Valdes leaves) makes sense for him despite having to be away from his family for a year.
Probably on loan incase Migs gets injured during the season so we can call Peper back. Then use the money from the sale next summer to buy a decent back up. Only thing I can think of.
Maybe it's just showing a bit of respect to a long standing servant of the club and its all agreed he goes Barca next year for X amount. I love Reina as much as the next red - he is a top guy but we do need to remember why this has happened, Reina was waiting for Barca to make him an offer and it didnt come cod of Valdes - we would have been mad not to react to the fact that he would be 100% leaving next year. Club have done this right IMO
look it could be right but the other way could have been to buy mingolet and lend him back to sunderland to play. thats if you thought you would not get him next year etc etc... in the end Barca could have bascially reneged on reina or something this year. I don't know. I do agree we should be ahead of it not reacting to the actual bid. BUT my opinion is rodgers put two hands on his back and pushed him out the door with this wages comments. there are a few ways to handle such a situation and i just don't think we benefit other than cost saving as reina is top quality, i've been the one daring to be critical when he flogged goals but i've also been the one saying he's back to his best since christmas. I see benefit to us only in cost cutting on wages and i see a detrimental effect in club image frankly.
Reina's been at his worst at the start of each of the last 3 seasons then picked it up - I think it is critical to get the season started off by winning games and confidence and belief continues from there. I know it all seems hasty etc but I like how bold BR is and he isn't a coward and blaming Reina for it, he is taking responsibility already before 'the plan' has paid off or not. I respect that.
thats fair enough.... in the past 3 season two were spanish duty and he came back late and of course one of those years he came back to some ****e hodsgon coach.... reina has coped with a lot too. I do think you are right though he's picked it up which suggest rafa like most of our guys had rafa riding his case and making him better. at 30 he's not even in his prime though.... I just hope mingolet shows what rodgers sees when he's under the spot light. freidel didn't and james only delivered with at smaller clubs. If he can cope with us he'll do ok.... i've no issue with it from that point of view. I also respect rodgers right to make his choice. I will never agree with a loan like this for money's sake.
Because it might raise his value for next season? Because he doesn't want a permanent move as he wants to move to Barca next season? We benefit by getting on of our assets being able to show his skills in the champions league & also by getting him off the wage budget. Plus as another poster has just said, Reina deserves to play regularly and give himself the best chance of going to the world cup with Spain.
There's possibly quite a lot more money in cycling than you're suggesting here but I get you in that all the riders aren't on c.£200,000 a week etc as in the PL. With cycling the team sponsorship is massive with big multinational brands signed up with each outfit, Sky being the obvious example, then there's the bike, component and gear companies who want to get as much exposure as possible to consumers. Serious/regular cyclists can shell out perhaps £1500+ just for a groupset (shifters, brakes, chain, cranks, bottom bracket, front/rear gear rings, derailleurs, cables) never mind the frame, wheels and other necessary kit which is extremely expensive in comparison to footy stuff (sorry, don't know if you're into cycling, I ride).
This is my reading of the whole situation. I think its obvious Reina has already signed a pre contract with Barca and said as much to LFC, Valdez was suppose to go this season so we lined up mignolet as his replacement. Valdez "wanted" to do another year but we already had the mignolet deal sorted and may lose him if we scrapped the deal, so we signed Mignolet and were left with Reina. Now, with Mignolet already signed it makes no sense not to play him as he will be first team next season when Riena leaves and needs to fit in with a developing team, that leaves Reina on the bench with high wages in a world cup year. All this now leaves us in a bad position, as we cant sell Reina as hes arranged to go to Barca and wont agree a deal anywhere else and its not fair to either parties to have him as a backup. Only sensible option left is to Loan him out which means Reina gets first team football and we don't have to stump up for his hefty wages. To me this explains why Reina has not said anything about the move, as he engineered his exit from LFC to Barca, but Barca stalled. It seems that Barca and Reina(I'm sure unwittingly) have done us over rather cleverly and we have just had to lump it. The one saving grace in this situation is Rafa, hes always known about Barca's courting of Reina which probably pissed him off when he was LFC manager. He's taking him on Loan which is the best for all parties the way thing have panned out, and hopefully he will make a bid for him next summer making Barca pay a little more than they were planning. All in all, Reina wanted to go so we replaced him before we sold him to avoid the Andy Carrol situation of last year, but it hasn't quite worked out for us. I don't really think any blame can be placed on management as they were just reacting to Reina's desire to move and what looked like the imminent departure of Valdez. I'm just glad that its all sorted weeks before the start of the start of the Season which suggests lessons were learnt from last year.
