Liverpool agree £9m bid for Rickie Lambert

It's sad to see him leave, but he will be leaving us on a high. I wonder whether, overall, it would have been sadder for us to see him lose his place and gradually fade into the background, in some ways as Le Tissier did (though he didn't half make up for it with his last goal). I very much doubt he will be as effective for Liverpool as he has been for us, at least not for as long, but I do hope he makes a name for himself and gets to play in the CL.

One thing though - if he goes on and on a la Ryan Giggs, and is still playing in five years' time, we'll be kicking ourselves.

 

That's where I'd start, certainly. Then I'd remind him of his moral and contractual obligations, and insist on holding him to his full notice period. Then I'd sob, cling on to his leg, and yell "please don't go!"



Scratch that last bit (wipes tear from eye).

 

Especially with Bristol Rovers confirming a sell-on clause.

 

Four million. Four ****ing million for 13 goals and 10 assists. Are the board constantly drunk?

I am LIVID. Guessing it's a matter of time until the shaw and lallana deals are wrapped up now as well. I've been staying calm and positive the whole time but this transfer regardless of what else happens is an absolute abomination for us.

 

Sad. I don't begrudge Rickie the move at all but this is still a sad day.

 

So considering the now confirmed sell on clause, we're getting £3m for losing our talisman and a regular starter. Greeeeeat!

 

How much is the sell on clause?

 

Here comes another meltdown.

 

Already here...

 

It's just occurred to me how glad I am that Liverpool didn't win the title.

 

[video=youtube;UzfdVbClqAA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzfdVbClqAA[/video]

 

I got so depressed reading this thread last night, that I couldn’t take any more, so apologies if what I say has been covered by others.

Rickie’s move to Liverpool, whilst coming as a shock, on reflection, is no surprise. He’s a scouser through & through, and to get the chance of playing with his boyhood team - and the possibility of CL football would be hard to resist. He would also realise that at 32, that whoever he plays for, he’s likely to be a squad player and spend more & more time on the bench. This would have inevitably happened had he stayed at St Marys. He has been brilliant, and probably the best £1 million we’ve ever spent, but all good things must eventually come to an end. £4 million plus add ons for a 32 year old seems like a pretty good return. I for one wish him well.

More worrying is the maelstrom of rumours surrounding just about every player in the first team - but, this IS the silly season - apart from the World Cup, there is very little football news for the journos to write about, so, they make it up …. (shock! horror! journalist fabricates story!)

Yet you can see why this has happened.

By all accounts, Cortese was a bastard to work for, but he was our bastard …… Poch was Cortese’s man, and they were very close, so there was always a possibility that Poch would leave the club too. In fairness, he stayed until the end of the season & I believe, did his best for us. When the season ended he would want assurances about the direction of the club, the transfer policy and whether or not funds were available to strengthen the squad.

Kreuger’s appointment set the alarm bells ringing. In all his early pronouncements, he talked of “growing the brand”, “increasing revenue streams”, financial stability” etc - all well and good, but precious little about football …..

The alarm bells got even louder, when a few weeks ago, there was a story that we owed something like £37 million in unpaid transfer fees that were due this summer. If we defaulted on these payments, we’d incur penalties from the PL - not only financial, but also the possibility of points deductions.

The only way that the club could get this money would be to sell our prized assets.

Poch would know a lot more about this than the rest of us & would demand some sort of clarification - and I very much doubt if he got the answers that he (and we) were looking for and said “Thanks, but no thanks …”

The board are making all the right noises about getting a top quality manager - but that seems like smoke & mirrors to me. Saints would be a very attractive proposition to any decent manager, because of the players, but if they’re all going to be sold to pay off debts, where’s the attraction then? Furthermore, would there be any funds left to buy in new talent or would the new manager have to rely on players coming through the Academy?

As many others have said, it would be utter madness to even consider selling any player (especially Adam or Luke) until after the World Cup. If they do well, their value will skyrocket - and they would be exposed to a world wide audience, possibly inviting offers from overseas. Whilst neither is likely to generate a Gareth Bale type figure - £35/40 million would not be so much of a fantasy, and at those sort of figures would be hard to resist.

The key question is - what is the deadline for repaying the clubs debts?

Kreuger and/or the board need to issue a statement now to steady the ship.

(PS I think Poch will regret going to Spurs - a real poisoned chalice)

 

Club debts? Wasn't it 27m in unpaid transfers(as the fee wasn't in one hit). If so I imagine the Prem money has already easily paid that off.

 

That's why he was brought it. I would be worried if he was talking about football. That's not his job.

It's £27m and it has to be paid this season. But in the very same announcement they said they could service that debt without selling any players, and there's really nothing to stop us taking out a loan to pay it off and repay the loan over the course of a few years.

 

Blackmore saying that Liverpool said the deal needs to be done before the England squad jet off to Miami or else the deal is off. Seems like we want the deal to go through more than them if we're happy to hurry it?

 

Those ****ers.

If we give them Lallana as well after that I'm going to join the meltdown.

 

Probably for Rickie's sake if he really wants to go.

 

£4 million is criminal

 

In a way I feel a bit sorry for Krueger. This would probably have happened regardless of whether Cortese stayed or not, but as he isn't here anymore Krueger is taking all the flack.

 

So much for Saints "doing deals on our terms" then Mr Krueger.