From his perspective, Barcelona is a terrible choice. It’s a toxic, shithole at present. Super glad that JJ or Bayern isn’t pouncing on him.
Jermaine Jenas?
Frank Rijkaard never played for Barcelona.
Manager though.
Much as we may all love and rate Gini highly I don’t think he makes starting 11 for peak Barca sides.
Seems extremely foolish on his part if what’s reported is true. As it has been stated, Barcelona is a toxic cesspool with mounts of debt and a manager who could soon find himself out the door.
He could easily find himself in a situation worse than Coutinho’s. I’m hoping that for everyone involved this isn’t true.
With all due respect for him and his achievements, I think it is better that he leaves. We need a younger better midfielder for the future, and also a one that can perform away from home. Having Gini is like having a half player, Imperious at home but disappear on away days.
A bit harsh that, we will miss him a lot more than some think, always available and does a lot of work for the team that some fans don’t appreciate, also it will cost us a lot of money to replace him and as we all know FSG are very thrifty with the cash.
If Gini is half a player - what are Ox, Keita and Matip? Milner also can not play week in week out anymore. Jones still very young and might need another season to be able to start twice a week.
Also, some posters are already trying to make him a villain. Putting him in the Torres / Coutinho bracket. One pushed for a move to a domestic opponent. The other simulated injuries to move to spain.
Without Gini we would’ve not won the CL and we would’ve not be Champions. That makes him a club legend in my book.
Be a big loss, as already stated he could easily be making a huge mistake by moving there.
If he scores a hatrick and knee slides in-front of Bruno Fernandes I’ll allow him to leave
Cant believe we havent offered him what he wants. He’s started nearly every game and we still have broken players on our books in Keita and Ox. Also Milner isn’t getting any younger. That’s potentially 4 midfielders that need replacing in the summer. We cant keep waiting for Ox to find his form and keita to play more than 1 game every 2 months.
Matip, ox, milner (due to age), keita should be be out the door before Gini
How do you know we haven’t offered a really good deal? If it’s his dream to play for Barca, then there isn’t really an offer, short of something really fucking stupid, we could make.
Where would you stop? Or would you really just offer whatever it took? Would you make him one of our top earners? According to some rumours that’s what he was after. I struggle to see him in our top 5 on ability, influence, leadership or standing in the game. His main strengths are his availability and reliability. He’ll always do the basic job required by Klopp but he rarely goes above and beyond that, he doesn’t play out of his shell often and doesn’t influence games much. He usually performs well if the team does but if the team doesn’t he shrinks into himself. He’s a very important player for us because he’s always there when we need a reliable pair of hands but he’s not one of our top players and shouldn’t be paid as one.
No problem with giving him a 3 year contract and make him one of the Top 5 earners.
Clearly should earn more than Bobby does.
And even if we would make him top earner it could plausibly be explained to his team mates and future signings:
Gini is a 30 year old player who won the CL and PL as a clear starter and earned relatively small wages in that time. He deserves that huge pay rise to make up for that ‘lost’ years.
Don’t think it would upset anyone in the squad.
There are bigger abnormalities in our wage structure:
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Sadio is on just £100k a week. This needs to be sorted asap.
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Hendo £140£ while Bobby is on £180k - ridiculous.
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Ox and Keita on £120k for being injured 9 months a year
Gini is on £75k a week.
Think the club hesitated for too long in 2019. At the start of 2020 the uncertainty caused by COVID made negotiations impossible.
The player would never admit it but at the start of this season it was probably already too late. That sign on fee as a free agent is too tempting for a player.
Wijnaldum kept (and will for next few weeks still do it) his options open but I’m sure in September he was already 80% sure that he will leave the club.
Problem is he’ll be on the decline into his thirties and an energetic midfielder. Club didn’t want to take the risk. He is a consistent 7 and injury free which makes him a luxury in our injury struck team. He plays out of position compared to his role internationally and he’s always accepted that role, he’s a true professional, so for me a big loss.
Nah, this is past info. It’s been a while since Mane signed his new deal and joined the top earners (in that little bracket just a bit below Salah). Although all those wages are not fixed, a good portion of them is structured (based on games played, various bonuses, etc.), and it’s been said that especially Liverpool does that in last years.