True, but I think you can imagine getting 4-5 years out of Virgil. Hendo is less certain because of the injuries.
Also the squad has a lot of players around the age of 30 in the squad. So, we may see stronger moves to give a deal to Hendo next summer as the squad continues its transition.
Yeah, Iâd expect Virgil to still be one of the best around at 35. Wouldnât have any objections to having him on a big contract 4-5 years from now.
maybe all the contracts are being improved in readiness for the Mbappe hit next season
Surely Hendo will sign a new paper (or maybe I am very naive) but I still feel kind of embarrassed every time I read about his contract situation in the media.
No problem if this would be Salah or VvD but the club captain (or this kind of club captain) should be untouchable.
Give him a blanco contract where he can fill in the wages and years.
The address looks legit, but the tweet isnât on his timeline.
So itâs definitely on then!! AWESOME!!!
I get the sentiment, but it might result in creating the kind of domino effect that can result in putting us in similar situation like a Barca/ United (high wages, new players demanding similar, Messi stature of player > club, etc. etc.), from which it is very difficult to come back.
I remember that League Cup game which we ended up winning 15-14 ,or something like that , and how a good number of them were eminently saveable yet he didnât get near any of them. He was just shit , all round. I canât believe he remained first choice keeper for as long as he did.
Bowen left out of West Hamâs game today with BrentfordâŚ
The dark side of me really wants him to sign just to piss off the twitterite âfansâ.
Bit early to say for VVD, no?
No. not really. His fitness record has been fairly good both before and after joining. He is coming off of a big injury but compare that to Hendo who has missed a fair few games each season for quit a few years now.
Put it this way itâs too early to pronounce on VVD. All we can do is hope!
Of course your correct about Hendo but any decissions over VVD should hinge a lot over the next season imo. (we should expect to see him miss some games over the course to protect him (which shouldnât count against him) but if his knee doesnât hold up questions will surely be asked.
I just find it very brave to come out with what you have.
Nothing brave about it. I think we can imagine getting 4-5 years out of him, he is only 30 and it isnât unusual for CBs to play until they are 34-35. That of course doesnât mean we will and any decision to offer him a new contract I am sure will be taken following advice from the medical and coaching staff.
Weâve had some fans say âwe always buy players early and quietly so that means we arenât getting anyone else this windowâ.
Then we have the evidence of Thiago and Jota and we can see there are some holes in that theory.
My take on it is that we start discussions with a club early and ask for media silence. Sometimes a club is ok with a sale, the selling club is looking for a price in the same bracket as we are willing to buy, and the playerâs agent is happy to play ball. But we always attempt to follow a script and sometimes it will work out that way and other times we will need to revert to plan B or C to try and get the player.
Perfect example of a quick, quiet sale is Fab. Done quietly. Done practically the second the CL loss was over.
Example where buying and selling club couldnât quite agree and the saga played out in the media for a while. Like Thiago.
Then we have a transfer like Jota, which was quiet and at the last second which to me suggests either everyone is incredibly good at keeping secrets, or we spent the off season chasing a player we couldnât quite grasp and Jota was second choice.
I have the impression our deals (outside youth squads) are at the beginning or end of the transfer windows.
I donâ know why but my guess is that we have a budget that we use at the start of the window then any additions depend on what we sell and so any âextrasâ come later. Those that break that are ones that for some reason or other just got messy.
I could see how that works, but there was nothing stopping us from signing Jota at the start of the window. The only significant sale was Lovren at 10m so itâs not like he was dependent on any outgoings.
Iâm not saying itâs set in stone however your example of breaking my hypothesis is weak.We bought Thiago that window and if transfermadness is correct he only cost âŹ22 million so to get Jota as well we would not have to sell much at all. Jota cost âŹ45 million. i.e total approx.âŹ67 million so we probably didnât even need âŹ10 million of sales.
There is also the covid factor for both last season and this one. No matter how significant the effect has been, there has been an effect to some extent.
Last year with Jota we may have got him earlier, but there was an element caution about spending (if that was actual or just for appearances sake). Iâm guessing we didnât really want to be seen to be immediately throwing ÂŁ40m at a player after the talk of furloughing staff.
This year less wealthy clubs could be looking for higher fees for their players to make up for short falls from alst season. We obviously donât want to be held to ransom for a player we have an interest in.
Agree Van Dijk takes a lot of rest during matches, a CB can do that while Henderson, a midfielder runs much more.
We arenât discussing rumors anymore 