I'm with the board on this one - I just feel a little uncomfortable with how they seem to be bumbling along learning on the job though. Even if that's not actually the case, they're portraying it as such, which is a little hapless from a PR perspective, and increasingly image is everything!
Look, I don't think we have "screwed" Morgan. However, once again it is another situation that has shown up the slapstick comedy that is our board. If we wanted to keep Morgan then it should have been made clear from the offset, instead a situation has been allowed to develop where the player is negotiating personal terms and is pretty much inside WHL before a swift 180 is performed. Of course he is going to be pissed off, I doubt there is a footballer alive that wouldn't be.
I mean, I know that at a very core level you have to be insane to be a football supporter. We subject ourselves to hope and despair in equal measure, with nothing to gain, usually climaxing in disappointment. We care so deeply about where the ball is going, and if it is headed in an inconvenient direction because the man didn't touch it correctly. Then even aside from the times where the ball is actually moving, we have to subject ourselves to finance and personal career opportunities that really are none of our business. We are addicted, compulsively curious. We crane our necks to look in through the window at the work going on behind the scenes, when I'm sure those involved would rather we just waited for whistles to blow and for the ball to start moving again. I think I preferred it way back when I was just watching where the ball was going.
HE negotiated terms for himself. Not us. Did we agree a fee? Maybe he should have waited until we had accepted an offer. As I'm sure his contract stipulates.
Also, hasn't he only just returned to the club after the summer? I'm sure Beef and DTLW said earlier in the thread that the meeting where he was first told 'non' was at the weekend just gone. When has the club ever said he was for sale or could go?
We'd be foolish to not be looking at alternatives. The club may decide that JWP or Reed can step up, but if Clasie is keen and available at a good price then better to get him in now and give him time to adapt. Even if we do keep Morgan this summer, he will be off come January or next season. All players in this situation end up going eventually (e.g Cabaye, Modric, Suarez)
Still kind of suggests that he genuinely believed that he was off, there shouldn't have been any grey areas on this. A lot of talk also that he claims he was told that he would be allowed to leave, could be bullshit, who knows. I expect we'll hear more in the coming days as Morgan is normally very honest in interviews. I honestly believe Ralph's stunt today was in part due to the backlash that was getting out of control, but once again no thought has been given to the likely fall-out.
Wow, jsut read 26 pages on this, that escalated quickly. As far as I'm concerned, Morgan can **** right off. But then he gets what he wants, so he can stay, and rot. Stay firm Ralph, Stay firm.
Yet Ralph stated the club had been in contact with Morgan, despite this Morgan has returned to the club thinking a deal is imminent. Like I said before, Morgan's behaviour this evening was wrong, no doubt. But once again the board have been caught out by their complete failure to communicate clearly and decisively a fact which keeps getting raised by respectable journalists as a key reason for players being angry and unsettled.
Not true, all I'm saying is why did they wait until the 11th hour to do anything about it? Everything about Morgan's behaviour suggests that this is something he did not expect, why?
Didn't DTLW say Koeman told Morgan last week he will not be sold? He then tried it on with his advisors today and was told the same by Reed. I think that is a pretty clear message.
I'll say the same about Schniederlin as I did about Lovren. If they genuinely feel some affinity for the club, and genuinely feel they've been lied to and/or the club is going on a horrible direction, then they could do the supporters a solid and explain their side of the story and what they see as going on. None of this "my heart was always at Liverpool" or "I wanted to stay, but then they refused my transfer request" crap. If Morgan were to do that, I'd have more respect for him.
Morgan said he wanted to see what happens. Perhaps they believed he would choose to stay and they wouldn't have to force him. Or maybe they don't accept that Tottenham is a big CL club...
I think this is the old Ass-u-me (not a come on btw) from Morgan. As Schad mentioned earlier transfers are seemingly negotiated in reverse with agents sorting personal terms before the clubs agree on fees. I think Morgan saw his mates go off and just thought the board would let him go too. Much to everyones surprise they have stood firm I know it's just a public interview but Koeman was very clear that he wanted Morgan to stay and he was a key player for us. I can't believe we would have communicated anything differently to him in private.
He wants to move for himself and he's being told no. How about it's as simple as that? He returned to the club last week and had the meeting this weekend just gone. That's immediate enough in my book. If Jay, Poch and him are having their secret love-in about how they want to work together forever, that's his business, not the club's.
Or maybe, just maybe, things at the club aren't quite as bad as the players who want to leave are making out.
Was Pochettino the worst thing to happen to the club? Don't get me wrong, last season was superb, but in the long run, has it damaged us as a team? All these rumours of Poch. doing his **** stirring and tapping players up, has, imo, been a large factor of what's happened this summer.
It's as always just very difficult to make a call without actually having the absolute facts to hand. So all we can do is decide who to believe and then argue about who believed the right person. It's just very sad that the cornerstone players of our club have come to this now. Oh well. If anyone can, Koeman can.
