Incredible for Ibou and Madrid. Sucks for us.

I'm hoping the change in coaching will potentially lead to the reintegration of Harvey and most improtantly, CuJo staying. We don't have enough players to drop both of them and replace all of the holes that we have, especially if we cash out on Macca.

I'm going to be really disappointed if we sell CuJo and it will certainly take some shine off of the club. There doesn't appear to be another Scouser in the pipeline as Hughes and Edwards have prioritized piping top tier youth talent from other clubs instead focusing on developing the local base. While I recognize that you have to bring in talent if the local region does not have enough, it's pretty clear that If we sell Cujo there will be another Scouser on the first-team for 5-6 years....over even longer. Seems like a betrayal to the LFC roots to do that.

I also think CuJo is a good player. He isn't Stevie G, but certainly could become a decent RB if we gave him full opportunity there next year and asked him to focus on defending. He actually scored two goals from that position this year and there is reason to be optimistic, given that Bradley is probably not coming back anytime soon and Frimpong is actually a worse defender than CuJo.

It will be an interesting summer. The post world cup transfer window is usually a wild ride.

I think Curtis is a great player, and he has really come into his own the past two years, which is exactly the reason why I think he'll be heading to Inter Milan. So he can start regularly and form his own identity.

The only way he stays imo is if we sell Mac Allister and he is promised a real shot at being a starter for Liverpool, and we don't really replace Mac Allister wtih another senior level starter. I could see him being fine in a midfield of Szbo, Gravenberch, Wirtz, Elliott and Nyoni, but if we brought in an Adam Wharton, Lamine Camara, and/or Eduardo Camavinga, I do not see him wanting to stick around, and I wouldn't blame him at all.

Ibou was rumored to be tapped up by Real when his contract negotiations first broke down before last summer. I'm guessing he gave the club a second chance to match whatever RM were offering when his formed turned down. Player transfers are not simple. There was no market for Ibou last year for a club willing to pay what it would have taken to get the player and club to agree to a deal. We didn't need a transfer fee for the guy, so they didn't pursue one. Nobody is paying a significant fee for a rental, which is what he would have been had he not gone to RM or another club offering similar wages. I'm sure the club did a cost/benefit and determined that his "discounted" wages for two full seasons was worth more than a transfer fee that would have been spun into a non-equivalent player.

Only a two year contract for Iraola…

Not really that big of an issue, but a little surprised it's not 3-4.

Interesting, that is actually surprising to me at least. This is a massive transition year along with a World Cup interrupting the offseason. I personally think this is a 2 year rebuild at best, and that's assuming FSG open the pocketbook and also make the actual right moves.

Agree on this being a two year re-build. The only reason I am not hitting the panic button is because this is exactly what he did at Bournemouth. He signed two, two-year deals, so this could be just how he rolls. And to be honest this is risky for both sides so perhaps a two-year deal makes sense for everyone involved.

Even if FSG open up the pocketbook again, which I think they will to a certain extent, we're not challenging for a title next year. We need way too many players.

The two year deal seems to be driven by Iraola. He is definitely a bit of an eccentric character. I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say in his intro presser.

joemeister said:

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Ibou was rumored to be tapped up by Real when his contract negotiations first broke down before last summer. I'm guessing he gave the club a second chance to match whatever RM were offering when his formed turned down. Player transfers are not simple. There was no market for Ibou last year for a club willing to pay what it would have taken to get the player and club to agree to a deal. We didn't need a transfer fee for the guy, so they didn't pursue one. Nobody is paying a significant fee for a rental, which is what he would have been had he not gone to RM or another club offering similar wages. I'm sure the club did a cost/benefit and determined that his "discounted" wages for two full seasons was worth more than a transfer fee that would have been spun into a non-equivalent player.

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This is the new reality in the transfer market and Real Madrid are the best at it. The player has very little incentive to sign a new deal entering the final year of their current deal. Other clubs can offer higher wages since there is no transfer fee involved. The current club doesn't want to/can't match and they leave. There is very little loyalty to a physical club nowadays. They are mercenaries. Similar to baseball and the other American sports, it makes more sense financially to enter free agency.

On the flip side is what is the cost of acquiring a replacement for the outgoing player? It may actually be more cost effective to pay $200-$250/week or whatever he was demanding, than paying a $50MM+ transfer fee and $150/week for a replacement. But wages structures and all make it complicated. Every player wanting a new deal is going to play the same game. Clubs can't play that game and make it work with their wage structure.

Watch the Szobo contract situation. They are trying to get a new deal done now (he has 2 years left on his deal), and don't want to go down the same road as with Konate. If they can't/he won't sign a new deal....would they sell soon.....

If Szoboszlai doesn't sign a new deal this summer, do you just go ahead and sell him for 80+ million? I could make the argument yes.

Tksymm7 said:

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If Szoboszlai doesn't sign a new deal this summer, do you just go ahead and sell him for 80+ million? I could make the argument yes.

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100% have to break this cycle.

Yes....you sell if you can. And specifically to Szo, it absolutely bears watching as there are some similar flags there already (he loves RM-not saying they love him though). Also some unhappiness rumors at having to play RB and some offputting behaviour at the end of a game or 2. Who knows and it's being way over analyzed, but I don't blame it after what happened with Trent and Konate and around football in general.

Completely agree. They need to sell if no deal is done and I think they will.

I also want to put this on record that I really like Szbo, but he's a pretty niche player imo. He's a fantastic athlete and presser, he's got an unreal right foot and is pretty versatile. With that being said, he really struggles when he's pressed, he has serious lapses when he's got the ball or defending in his own half, and he's really not a great passer of the ball in the final third imo. Going to be a really interesting saga again I feel. His attitude also kinda sucks at times.

Keep in mind, transfer fees are amortized across the player's contract. If Player X is signed for a $50M fee and his wages are $5M/year over 5 years, the annual cost for that player is reported as $15M per year. Most of the time, the transfer fees are also paid that way between the clubs. Compare the "fee" Man City paid for Haaland vs his wage demand, and you'll start to see how the difference clubs balance transfer fees with the wage bill. Isak and Wirtz are on way lower personal salaries than Haaland, but it took a lot more money to pry them away from their clubs due to the length of their remaining contracts at the time they were bought out. I'm sure both players understood that their wages would be lower because of the size of the fee too, but they viewed the move as an acceptable pay increase and the next step in their professional careers.

Euro football contracts are a lot different than American sports as well. We have league enforced restrictions that give clubs the first opportunity to sign a player which can go to arbitration if the player doesn't want to sign. At most, Euro clubs will have a club option year at the end of a contract, very rarely a player option to extend.

Euro contracts are generally heavily incentive based. If a player is on the bench or doesn't make the match day squad, their wages are heavily reduced. Part of what was dragging Man U down so much in the post-Ferguson period is that they got in the habit of entering high-wage guaranteed contracts with players that ended up not being good enough (or not in favor with the manager) to make the bench. There was a really interesting episode of Stick to Football where Roy Keene brought a copy of one of his last few contracts with Man U and showed how simple it was.

Diomande is not going to decide his future until after the World Cup, but it seems like momentum is growing he'll be headed to PSG so long as PSG pay the what is likely to be a 100M fee. And I get it. PSG are just in a much better place in terms of consistency and outlook at the moment. If it does end up being PSG, I still really do want us to Grab Barcola. I think there is something untapped there that hasn't been allowed to come out at PSG.

Also some pretty massive FIFA news before the World Cup:

- Players will have five second to throw the ball in or distribute the ball from a goal kick (assuming the punishment will be a change of possession for throw-ins and potentially a corner for goal kicks)
- Red cards for players covering their mouths during confrontations with the referee or players (stupid as heck but I get it)
- Mandatory one game minute out for players taken off the pitch for injury
- VAR can step-in an signal fouls before ball enters during set pieces
- VAR can overturn wrongly awarded second yellows and corner kicks

The pretty much a fan of all of these besides the red card for covering mouth thing. Particularly love the first, third and VAR being able to overturn wrongly-awarded corner kicks. I do feel bad for referees though with how much stuff is changing in such a short period of time. Seems like an impossible job.

I think the EPL/PGMOL need to be seriously, seriously looking into item #1, #4 and #5.

As long as the VAR calls are quick (less than 60 seconds total time to restart play), then I'm okay with all of it. I don't care as much about VAR signaling fouls before play starts, but definitely the miss-awarded corner kicks. That seems like it should be treated the same way as offside. FIFA is influenced by worldwide officiating. With the prevalence of sports betting, in particular football prop bets, I can see wanting to do things like prevent a ref from manipulating the number of corners issued in a match.

Good points. The corner situation has really taken an uptick in value so I understand them putting a major emphasis on them.