So the buzz is that the recent Coutinho offer was 20m upfront, a further 60 over the next 5 years and 39m in ludricous, almost impossible then achieve add ons. From a club that apparently received 200m up front from psg You can understand liverpools position Imagine if we got a Virgil offer of 10m upfront , 35m over 5 years and 25m of add ons like winning the world player of the year, keeping 20 clean sheets a season, scoring 10 goals a season, giving Klopp at least 10 touchline hugs a season when substituted ... etc
I assume this is a wind up? Otherwise he should have been sacked on the spot for knowing nothing about football
I think its just so wrong that a big club can come in and tap up a star player from a club like Liverpool. Now their whole team is all out of whack, the manager cant field the side he wants to so the team cant play the way they want to and to top it all off they're trying to take him for less than he's worth. Its this sort of carry on that is ruining football I tell ya. I think if Liverpool can dig their heels in on this and force him to play against his will it will be good for football but I do feel a smidgen of sympathy for Coutinho. Platers should be allowed to double their salaries and go to top clubs whenever they want. Contracts are just paper, nobody expects anyone to actually be held to them. Apart frrom the clubs of course. They still have to pay and behave in accord with the contract.
Which is funny really, because they both know he's not really good enough to justify that sort of money. But still no deal.
What they need is for their chairman to come out and say "it's nothing personal, but we're not selling anybody this season". Course, they won't because they've not an ounce of principle.
The knockon of the VVD/Coutinho drama this summer I think will be more players asking for and having release clauses in their contracts, which is probably a good thing in the long run, aslong as players except lower wages for lower clauses. The current scenario of players striking or being "injured" and not playing and clubs being afraid to sell players as they can't find other clubs willing to do business to get replacements is not want anyone wants
And more strict clauses about actually having to, you know, play football (do your job) to earn the bulk of the salary Some kind of work around would be needed for injuries but players should not realistically earn full wages if refusing to play or suspended. Perhaps just something that allows fines to be easier and less easy to challenge by whinging players Naive I know
This bear of little brain has believed for a few years that footballers contracts are unenforceable, in Europe anyway. Despite the football authorities scrambling to register all their sh*t in Switzerland EU employment law would, if contracts were challenged, render them useless, release clause or not. The Costa circus is just highlighting this. Of course there are two reasons why any challenge is rare, money and time. Money seems to be the resolution to everything in modern footy. Players can't wait six years while a final verdict is delivered, career over. Hard to feel much sympathy for players with the vast amounts involved. How much has VVD "earned" since last playing for Saints ? Mind you, Costa's starting to make him look mature and reasonable.
Even if Barca offered them £100m up front, I would expect them to reject it. They are in the same position as us. Their best and only world class player has only recently a long term deal and will fetch just as high a price next summer. They should keep him for a year and then let him go.
Ok so it would have to be available for selection And I guess you mean stuart ? And where has the 4m come from
Well i mused that there is a chance coutinho could be more upset as there could be a lower chance of Barcelona coming back in for him. They need players now and it could be once in a lifetime I don't think the same is true for VVD
They should keep Coutinho, we should keep VVD, and we should both sell them to Barcelona next season.
Agreed. Whether Barca would be interested in VVD is another matter but your point that he is capable of playing at a higher level than Liverpool is very much true.
