We should steer very clear of this one. Can barely score in Holland where you get at least 5 chances easy a game? Talk about a fallen star.
Sell Kelly IMO. I can't see a place in the team for him - Wisdom is now the better RB and CB than him. Kelly is 23, doesn't have great technique to play a possession game, and he's not that quick off the mark. Ilori will go out on loan next season I feel - he's a special talent. Agger is most likely to go - free up those wages and we already have Sakho as the replacement. Skrtel will go - he won't stick on the bench and we won't continue to pay his wages. In an ideal world, I would keep them both but we can;t afford to do that. This means that we need to buy a top class RCB. Dede and Hoewdes would be my picks. Papa would have been perfect but his knee is just not right and it would be a huge risk. Both full backs need replacing. Flanno, Wisdom and McLaughlin would provide solid competition. Preferred fullbacks (Left) - Ricardo Rodriguez, Moreno and on the right - Montoya, Sorg and Sakai. Sorg and Montoya can play on both flanks as well.
You're then replacing 3/4 of your back line - that's too much too soon imo. Even average players can bring the team along just by being established players in the squad.
Guys the thing about wages is moot if we hit cl. I would hope so anyway. I do not expect an agger sale as nobody in thier right mind would buy him.... Cheeky raga loan yes, buy no. It's the injuries.... Also I am detecting the start of true silly season now so be prepared for guys falling for the lunacy today it's valdes and isco. In short everyone will be joining lfC, every agent will use us etc etc Isco? He's not leaving real!
That's a fair point but our defence has been poor and unsettled with them all in. Changing it won't harm it any more IMO ...
Yep you would think the would try and make them a tad believable. Not even the most blinkered Liverpool fan is going to think we are going to spend £37 Million on Isco in the Summer.... ....Nice to dream though
Making the CL this time won't alter the wage structure. FSG aren't stupid, they are not going to change the budget based on one season. We won't see an increase until we regularly qualify. Remember, any boost in wages for one player has a knock on effect too. We may spend a bit more on fees but not wages.
Not really. Who else in our squad could walk into any team in the world? Plus, Suarez was here for a while and earnt a bumper deal
But its fair to assume any big name players that come in the summer will be expecting to be somewhere close to that kind of wage. If we want top players we are going to have to pay top money
Yeah, I thought the ideal was a squad of players on performance related pay to keep it competitive. Suppose it depends on what the structure is. Is it flat rate at start of each season with big bonuses for achievement at the end of season or is it a steady rise in wages each level achieved e.g. 30k pw this year, qualify for CL so 40k pw next year... Or is it more personally tailored...Suarez New deal suggests it is. I'd rather the former to be honest but probably not realistic.
I sincerely doubt it will happen. We have a pay structure that offers a basic wage which incentive payments to possibly make it top wage. Personally, I don't see any reason to change it and I think if we did players such as Sturridge would get the hump.
Well said Gez. I wouldn't want us to ditch our current structure for the sake of a player. And in the case of Suarez, he earned that new deal. I think the same is happening at Bayern and Toni Kroos - allegedly, he's after 200k a week and Bayern refuse to meet it. If we do get the CL, I'm sure we will be targeting better players - these players will be after more money which is part and parcel. But I just don't want us offering stupid contracts again.
I don't agree regarding a race to 20k per week rather than 60 or 80k. I just think you sustain your squad for europe so any thoughts of hokcing players should be dropped. their wages can be sustained for the period remaining on a contract... ie... johnson can be held for one year and his contract is gone. agger can be too. why would you sell unless you got a good amount of money to replace with better players and guys lets call a spade a spade. they are good players but not top 4 players so we are looking for someone really good. IF we get CL i am thinking rodgers will feel he can live with a defender thats "good" but cannot live with the lack of cover upfront or the fact that we need a better midfield. I think we'll spend on the best players we can get in those areas first. It'll be late in the window for a defender.
hang on but these numbers are just plain wrong. these numbers get you ASPAS. its known that aspas is on 30k per week and honestly the extremely low wages that coutinho are on are a rare and lucky thing. If we see performance based wages it will start higher... In short this argument doesn't hold water when you simply say sigurdsson. Its EASY to just hock your player as an agent to another club for more. You are all deadright suarez earned a new contract AND the contract suited LFC to increase his value. but his is 180k per week which is just over half of rooneys that is not the point. 180k per week is 150k per week MORE than the 30k you quote. If we want a 20mil players we are talking 100k per week. PERIOD. however if you want trash... keep playing relegation wages. i.e. aspas By al emans state that johnson at 100k per week is under performing and is a hold over from our prior CL period. sure he should be on 60k but its just unrealistic to think we can convinced an entire squad of good players to turn up to earn 40% of what they could just to play for lfc and then get their wages boosted on performance. Again gaston ramierez at southamption. why go there? money... nothing more. I don't know if we even bid but he moved from a big club to a small one for money. Kroos could move from a big club to a small one for money too this summer
My numbers weren't the point of my post Mito. Swap to 50 to 60; 250k to 260k for all I care. My actual point was wondering about the structure. Is it (once they've gotten rid of all the older players on non performance contracts) that everyone has a relatively low basic weekly pay (in terms of footballers not clerks) with very large performance bonuses added in. So, (again made up numbers) start at 40k for say a striker, score x goals this season get the equivalent of an extra 25k a week for the season no matter league position. But If whole team qualifies for CL and you played 70% games bar injury add another 15k a week equivalent for the year. Result? Player got paid 80k a week for the successful year. But he's to do it all again next year to get that money again, maybe add a goals scored in CL bonus to chase the next year since you're now in it and even a "do it 3 years in a row and we''ll up your basic". Alternatively he meets non of his personal targets, the team plays ****e, finishes in 8th and he only gets his 40k a week. Or is it, 5 year contract, year 1 you get 50k if you meet personal targets next year you get 60k and stay on that despite how you perform that year and so on with possibility of ending your contract on 100k or staying on 50k because you turned out ****e? As I said while I'd like the first I'm sure it's more of s mix of the two. Basic wage low with personal performance add ons despite overall team performance but with additional add ons if competing in CL and or winning trophies. Suarez deal as reported doesn't seem to fit either model but then is that a necessary gamble knowing he's likely to be a top performer his entire contract? Suppose you could argue it's based on performance so far but we'd still have to pay him that in 2 years even if he theoretically had a stinker next year and scored no goals..hence a good gamble to take to keep him.
How much will we have to spend? The usual £25m ish plus the sale of Reina, Agger (possible) and one or two that haven't made the cut. Perhaps another £20m coming into the club then. What's CL worth these days? Maybe an additional £20m? So we'd have (pure guesswork!) approx £45-£65m to spend, depending on CL qualification. We need 1 x LB 1 x RB 1 x DCM 1 x AM 1 x GK Remember, our squad is already small. We'd still have a small squad for a CL team (if we qualify) even if we bought all of these and these players need to be quality. Perhaps we can pick up the odd freebie but they tend to be (good) aging players running down their contracts for one last big payout (Valdes, Cole etc).....We did it with Toure so perhaps it's feasible that this could happen. Personally, if we have anything like the money mentioned above, I'd like to see 3 x £20m players arrive and cover the rest with prospects or free agents rather than more <£10m players. We desperately need quality in key areas.
Again, 30 k to 40k? What I'm saying is double it. We simply cannot think that wages for the lower half in England will cut it I accept your performance model, that's fine but I'm saying we need to start higher end of story By all means never repeat the Carroll debacle on wages, or downing but if it had been oh mata and costa everyone would be saying bargain wages at the 90k mark Yes if you buy a kid start off lower but if we want a top player to come as we can now offer cl... Well cl means cl wages not just kicking a ball about v Leverkusen in a group and olympiakos in the knockouts
So linked with Valdes on a free at end of the season. Not sure what I think of that. No doubt he is a good keeper, despite people claiming in the past that he has one of the easiest jobs in the world. Some of the saves he pulls off are very good and no doubt that his distribution is up there at the very top. down side is he's be on very high wages given he was a freebie and where he's coming from. Also should we not be given Mig our full confidence as he could be our long term keeper instead of Valdes who will be 33? Isco... would love him. Thought he was an absolute star in the Spain under 21's when I saw him before he moved to Madrid. Him and Thiago ran the show. Good goal scoring stats for a midfielder and adds that creative spark as well. Would we be willing to spend 35m+ on another player though? Not so sure..
Its down to wages. I'd like us to have proper competition for the keeper spot, but its down to wages. You could think Valdes is likely to be on the bench and have him on lower wages, but then he ends up doing well and Mignolet is the expensive sub. Plus Valdes wont accept an offer to earn less and play less. 33 is a god ages for a keeper.
