Football Banter Thread
- Thread starter Rotty
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Associate
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Even he if he has a perceived attitude problem towards the club ?
I think we have seen from the Suarez situation that Liverpool fans will fanatically stand behind pretty much anyone as long as they can kick a football.
Can't really speak on that but it's probably nothing a bit of extra £££ wouldn't solve.
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Didn't think they were that chuffed with him in the end. Suarez never had a problem with Liverpool thought did he, just with everyone else so used that as an excuse to leave Liverpool.
By kick a ball you mean best player in the league
Soldato
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He also has several years on his contract that he willfully signed, is only 20 years old and isn't guaranteed a start at any other club. Look at Jack Rodwell. Signed for City and hardly played a game although he was injured for a while. He should stay put.
Which explains why his agent has been asking for £150k per week, because he just wants to win things. Which rules out Arsenal anyway.
I'm supposed to be going to a wedding on Sunday 10th May and that game v Liverpool could now be epic, someone's going to be disappointed.
Well I was hoping to win the league v Liverpool as it would go down so well with the away support which is always funny to watch and looking at the fixtures it's still not unreasonable to expect Chelsea to win the League that day, depending on preceding results of course.
And Liverpool will be giving their all for Brendan and the shirt then don't forget so there's never nothing to play for.
Unless you get through to the FA Cup final in which case your players may be happy to roll over and be tickled just like the fans seem to be now.
And Liverpool will be giving their all for Brendan and the shirt then don't forget so there's never nothing to play for.
Unless you get through to the FA Cup final in which case your players may be happy to roll over and be tickled just like the fans seem to be now.
Soldato
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I don't rate him that highly, not sure he would add much to Arsenal anyway.
I think he will appeal to the top four though purely because he's got potential and he's English, the latter being the more important factor.
He's by no means the finished article but Sterling has the potential to be one of the best players in the world. I think people sometimes forget just how young he is and can be over critical of him. Roughly a year ago he was arguably outperforming Suarez and influencing the biggest matches.
I can't think of many kids his age that have slotted into a top end PL side and looked at home as quickly as he did. Young players are always going to be a bit inconsistent and have areas of their game that they can improve on but his starting point is a lot further a long than many players at his age. It's not just the ability he has that's so impressive about him but how comfortable he is in so many different positions - he's played on either wing, in the number 10 role, as a wingback and a centre forward and on the whole never looked out of place.
I hope and expect he'll sign a new deal in the summer. I can't see anybody being willing to pay mega money for him yet and that's what it'll take to get us to sell him. We're in a difficult situation regarding his contract though. On one hand it's hard to argue how paying a 20 year old kid, that's prone to distractions off the pitch, £150k per week is good for his development (although will it be much different that paying him £100k per week?). But on the other hand, his performances and the going rate for comparable players (and if many cases, lesser players too) at other clubs merit him earning that sort of money.
I can't think of many kids his age that have slotted into a top end PL side and looked at home as quickly as he did. Young players are always going to be a bit inconsistent and have areas of their game that they can improve on but his starting point is a lot further a long than many players at his age. It's not just the ability he has that's so impressive about him but how comfortable he is in so many different positions - he's played on either wing, in the number 10 role, as a wingback and a centre forward and on the whole never looked out of place.
I hope and expect he'll sign a new deal in the summer. I can't see anybody being willing to pay mega money for him yet and that's what it'll take to get us to sell him. We're in a difficult situation regarding his contract though. On one hand it's hard to argue how paying a 20 year old kid, that's prone to distractions off the pitch, £150k per week is good for his development (although will it be much different that paying him £100k per week?). But on the other hand, his performances and the going rate for comparable players (and if many cases, lesser players too) at other clubs merit him earning that sort of money.
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I can understand that point of view but when you compare him to similar aged players around Europe he's destroying them all this season. People need to remember he's only 20.
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I'm not that high on him but he rarely plays his best position imo
Isn't that a fairly good reason for not wanting to stay or trusting Rodgers, ultimately his break out season was playing wide, sometimes centrally but behind a striker. This season Rodgers has striking options but has frequently, rather stupidly, decided to play him as the main striker which hasn't worked out the majority of the time he's done it.
Either way, players move on, or not, he's supposedly turned down one contract offer, people are banging on about loyalty and bad advice. Loyalty is something generally perceived rather than real. Gerrard was happy to use a supposed move to Chelsea to get a pay rise, had liverpool not upped their offer he'd probably have gone. Sterling will at this stage either likely move on and get something that he's been promised already, IE more than 100k a week, or Liverpool could easily offer him more at which point he'll agree.
As for the idea that losing out on 35k a week for two years would be hard to make back. If he went the whole hog and waited to leave on a free transfer in 2 years he could easily make back that frankly piddling 4mil as a signing bonus. If say City or whoever would otherwise have to pay 20-40mil for him, waiting 2 years and giving him 10mil signing bonus as an incentive to see out his contract makes financial sense for all involved.
The only way people can say he's been badly advised is if he ends up making less than 100k a week on his next contract, where ever it happens to be.
Players like Rodwell, Sinclair, aside from the fact neither were anywhere near as good as Sterling has already shown and neither had the potential, they were both massively over rated and both have made millions more than they could have playing anywhere else had they not moved to City. Neither player was badly advised, neither player is truly top notch, neither would have got that money elsewhere, both are now at clubs maybe at the level they deserve anyway.... they could have gone to their current clubs directly and been millions worse off. anyone who thinks either player has been badly advised is delusional.
This is the key. Is it his decision? As I saw Tony Evans(?) say, do you think it was Sterling who decided to phone the BBC and ask to give an interview? Of course not, it was his agent. This is the same agent that tried nearly the exact same thing on with West Brom and Berahino - a few good months on the pitch, new contract talks that prove unsuccessful due to wage demands, Berahino gives an interview to Sky talking about his future and wanting to leave, leaks to the press about £20m+ moves to Liverpool and Spurs which never materialise.
I understand why players have and need agents but I can't help but think too many players take no responsibility for themselves now and just leave everything to their agent and too often that agent makes the best financial decision for them in the short term rather than the best overall decision for the player longterm.
There's been talk about Real being interested in Sterling for a year or so now and it's believable - if he were to become available I'm sure they'd be interested (they might not break the bank to sign him but they'd be in for him). If Sterling were to make a move like that, imo, it would be terrible for him. He's not nearly ready to play regular football for Real and he wouldn't get the opportunity to develop there. His career would stall and he'd sit around until Real found a club willing to pay a reasonable fee to take him off their hands. Unfortunately I get the impression that his agent would be willing to take that sort of gamble, should the opportunity arise, so he gets his big pay day.
This is completely untrue. Gerrard's contract was provisionally agreed and it was just a case of putting pen to paper if and when Gerrard decided on staying. We then had the uncertainty and him nearly leaving (which was more to do with Gerrard's insecurities than anything else) but in the end Gerrard signed the exact deal (from a pay point of view) that was agreed months before. The only changes that were made to the contract, reportedly at Gerrard's request, was to remove certain clauses that he'd previously wanted.
edit: and he wouldn't leave on a free in 2 years either. He'd still be at an age where a compensation fee would have to be paid, which if he stayed in England, would be 10's of £m's.
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