Gini Wijnaldum (CM) - PSG

Is it though? I think he signed an extension with a hefty rise.

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He is not a 25-year old Ronaldo. He is a fine player but there a more and younger players like him in the world who would love to get a chance playing for Liverpool just like he was when he was playing for Newcastle. I wish him well and move on this summer.

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We have absolutely no idea what players make this is all speculation from websites and journalists.

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And what if he wants to be one of our top 3 earners? Where do you stop? To be one of our top 5 puts him above one of Salah, Mane, Henderson, VvD and Thiago. Has he the skill or importance to the team for that? No, sorry he doesn’t.

And no Bobby should be higher too. Any arguments for how important Gini is to playing style etc. surely apply to Firmino who also has more influence on our results. Forwards just earn more than CMs as well.

People need to get over the “Ox and Keita get paid more” point! What do people want? Drop their contracted wages down illegally when it turns out they are injury prone? Do we know for sure the contract offers Gini has rejected over the last year or so wouldn’t have seen him on parity with them anyway?

18 months ago he’d have been on his 2 year point which is when we try to sort out the extensions usually. If he’d taken a pay rise then he’d be approaching his 2 year point again this summer and set for another pay rise. That’s what should have happened. The reason it didn’t was probably him actually always wanting this avenue to a free choice of his next club at 30 with the signing on bonuses and higher wages that offers. It’s smart planning from his view point.

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As fans,
do realise we may never witness him playing in a red shirt in front of us again.!
Very sad if that happens

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Sad if this is true and far more of a blow than losing Can and Lallana in the same way.

I’m sure the club have done all they reasonably can to keep him. Klopp seems to be a huge fan of his and whilst he’s one of our most reliable players he shouldn’t be in our top five earners he probably sneaks in at the bottom of a top ten. If he wants more than that you can see why the club might be hesitant.

Of course there’s always the possibility that having got this close to the end of his contract he might have been thinking more and more about whether he’d like a new challenge. Barca aren’t what they were but they always have a strong pull for Dutch players. Perhaps he’s just looking at it as his last chance to try something new before his career winds down.

Who knows, we’re all guessing but I doubt the club haven’t done what they think is right and if that isn’t enough for Gini then fair enough and good luck to him with what comes next for him.

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Damn, that cut close to the bone… I had not thought about it that way

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Did someone say Bobby should earn much more than Gini :joy:

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I see Bobby is in for a nice week…

One was more important to our game than the other, that’s not to say Gini didn’t become more important as time went on, especially after his first not so great two seasons. We don’t have to make Bobby a footballing God, he’s certainly not (the underrated days are long over I feel), but let’s not forget his importance either and even more so.

Gini maybe also needs to ask himself why he didn’t merit a new/improved deal in those first two years, which quite usually happens when a new player comes in and does very well. How did he end up at Newcastle in the first place after such great numbers in Holland? Why did it take him so long to become a Holland regular? How did you end up on such a deal going into your 30’s? I think there are pretty good reasons for that.

Gini went 117 games without a single assist from open play until Wolves not long ago. We can also talk about that… but of course, that’s not his game (anymore, if it ever was).

Gini’s not a attacking midfield maverick (not at this level at least), Bobby’s not a killer instinct/goalscoring forward. Both are important for us, one was/is more important than the other. Nothing wrong in that.

Gini’s career went in a slow way and now there are circumstances of us having other players of similar age. Henderson is still more important than him par example, that’s the reality. Of course I’m disappointed to lose him, especially on a free, but sometimes it happens.

Maybe he just wants to use his last 2-3 years of mature hard working football to get a move somewhere else. Plus, get a lot of money. We can do exceptions, Thiago was one last summer, I’m sure there will be more in the future. But all the time? Nah. There will be life without Gini Wijnaldum, we’re not doomed by default like when Real sold Makelele.

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Gini is a quality player and I’m sure we are talking about giving him a raise because he deserves one.

But at the end of the day he isn’t even close to irreplacable so if he have offered him a fair contract and he wants to leave, we’ll wish him the best and both move on. It will be a shame but I don’t think we will struggle to replace him.

Quality attacking players are right now in shorter supply hence their higher salary. And Bobby when he signed that contract was playing well.

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If he keeps this form up it’ll make his departure much easier to stomach.

Thanks Gini :slightly_smiling_face:

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If he walks to Barca on a free then it’s going to be 40 million to replace him and let’s say 75k a week (conservative estimate) on wages.

On a 5 year contract that is 59.5 million

Double Gini wages from 75 to 150 and over 3 years that’s 23.4 million.

Makes zero sense to let a first team regular from
The past 3 years leave from a football or financial point of view

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Make no mistake our rivals are pissing themselves at this.

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The club probably look at it differently, 31 this year and paying that much money during a pandemic, also the possibility of upsetting other players by him doubling his wages. I would not be surprised if we get no replacement, sign a CB and Fabinho moves back into midfield, we also have Jones emerging.

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I know we are struggling with injury but we probably attempted to combat the crazy season we were going to be having by carrying a larger squad than we usually would. We essentially added Phillips, Tsimikas, Thiago and Jota to last year’s squad without losing any one. That’s an extra player for CB, FB, CM and Attack. I think people who want to see a “Wijnaldum replacement” may become disappointed in the same way we never really saw a “Coutinho replacement”. The loss of a main squad member will probably mean the arrival of a main squad member but as you say it could be a CB with Fabinho moving forward or a more attacking option with Jones showing more and more promise for CM. Henderson, Thiago, Keita, Milner and one of Jones or Fabinho or a new signing will probably be enough for the engine room of the two deepest CMs. Maybe Ox or Keita might leave too in which case we may almost certainly bring in at least one CM but even thats not guaranteed. We could switch to 4231 with Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago, Jones and Milner as the options for the 2 in which case it would be another CB and at least one more attacker that would be needed.

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When our CB’s are back plus a new proper one there is no need to replace him

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Yes, because Thiago is his replacement and thats where the wages went.

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Easy to say we don’t need to replace him but he’s been our most dependable CM, although not our most flamboyant one, for about three seasons now.

Rarely misses games due to injury. Lot of steady 7/10 performances and some vital goals at times.

Whilst we hope Fab is back to being a midfielder with the injury records of Keita and Ox we’re going to be relying very heavily on Thiago and Hendo most weeks with a smattering of Jones and Milner.

Numbers wise we should have enough but three of them will be north of 30, two struggle to stay fit and one could well be our fourth choice centre back (and if Matip is still here that would make him third choice most of the time).

I wonder if perhaps Gini goes and we look to cut losses on Keita and bring in a younger body in there with an eye on the long term.

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This is a bit controversial but i reckon we need a bit of a revamp - saying this always feels like throwing out all the toys… but here goes. We just seem a bit flat. I completely trust in Klopp but if he hasn’t unpicked the lock then we are in a jam.

Midfield - It would have been better if Ginni had stayed (I’m assuming he’s going…) but at some point we’d have needed to change things up anyway. Due to injuries and/or lack of progression, I wouldn’t mind if we parted company with all of Ox, Keita, Milner (age), Shaquiri and Minamino - either in one fell swoop or over the next 2 windows. Going forward with Joines, Hendo and 4 others. 2 from the academy/youth team and 2 new buys.

Defence - At the back, it is clear that at least a centre back is needed. Phillips won’t cut it and the lad who played tonight is far too inexperienced. I would also add we need to bring in a bit of (dare i say it, “serious”) competition of Trent and Robo. Trent seems to drift through games and either he’s playing with an injury or is just too slow in his thinking or thinking too much - something is off… . Robo is consistent enough but he will break eventually and there’s no harm in having an option. Nico doesn’t seem to be overly trusted and some of that is due to the lack of any 1st choice centre backs in place so that a shame but if he cannot be trusted it begs the question should we have the option of having someone who can be. Won’t mention the Greek chap as he seems nowhere to be seen.

Attack - we seemed to have checked this box but Jotta got injured and Mini hasn’t really kicked on. We either trust Origi and set up to play to his strengths or buy another serious CF, Either way the front 3 will need to be turned over eventually so why not seriously invest in this department.

This makes it sound we are Burnley (wait didn’t they beat us…) or SU but we will need to invest at some point and though now may not quite be at that point due to extenuating circumstances, the writing seems (atm anyway) to be on the wall. Maybe we should just take the hit and ride this season out and wait for the summer to see where the cards have fallen. We could still go quite far in the CL and the league is still there - assuming we find our shooting boots.

Reading a few reports ( from dodgy sources) that Barca are on the edge of bankruptcy

I wonder if Gini will still be keen to join them if it’s true

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