I hope he stays, but if he goes, so be it. Life will go on and LFC will be quite fine.
I just wanted to comment on the contract thing. If he honors his contract then leaves, no harm no foul, that sort of thinking…
In a normal world, yes, I would agree with that. Finish your contract. Move on to the next thing. That’s how it usually works. But…
The world of football is not a normal world, especially the transfer fee part. It’s not just a player receiving his wages, playing, and honoring his contract. The transfer fee comes into play as we have to sign a replacement, and/or beef up the squad elsewhere.
The likes of Mac Allister ensured a win-win when he left Brighton. He was always going to move up to a higher club, but rather than wind his deal down and leave them with no fee, he agreed a new deal with a 40M release clause. It meant that his move wasn’t blocked, that Brighton got a decent fee - much better than nothing, and the buying club also got a good deal. Everyone got something from the move.
If Trent goes to Real Madrid on a Bosman, Liverpool will get nothing from the move, and as a Liverpool fan I do not like that. Real Madrid will get a smashing player, and Trent will get a great salary and a large signing bonus for coming on a Bosman. Again, Liverpool will get nothing.
Liverpool made Trent - trained him, developed him, coached him, gave him opportunities, paid him well, watched his star grow, and gave him a platform to win everything and become a rich young man.
I would much rather see a Mac Allister-like arrangement, where Trent, if he is going to go, would sign a new deal with a modest release clause, say 40M for a player worth 80M, so everyone comes out of the transaction with something. It is his home club, and it would seem to be the decent thing to do for the organization that made you.
The way this appears to be shaping up is Liverpool will get nothing and Trent will leave in that in between sort of way - not under a cloud, but neither with his head held high. I would imagine many fans will lose some respect and affection for him if this is how it pans out.
There’s two sides to that coin though. Liverpool could and should have been working on new terms last season or even the season before. It’s somewhat scandalous that they’ve let the contracts of three of their best payers run down like this in the same year. In my opinion, Trent’s done nothing wrong here and if Liverpool wanted to keep him or at least ensure a payday if he leaves, they should have had this done sooner.
This is in line with the public advice Carra gave him a few days back. I think it would be an honest thing to do for everyone involved. Also, it would probably help Trent gauge just how badly Real Madrid want him. If they are really desperate about him, then they wouldn’t have issues paying, say, 80 million pounds for a 100 million pounds fullback, no?
I would say that he would leave under a cloud, for exactly the reasons you have stated in your post.
The club made him and his leaving for nothing would essentially be tantamount to a big “fuck you” to the club.
Trent has agency in what he wants to do. The club cannot make an unwilling party sign anything.
If Trent is willing to sign a deal he could have done so easily by now. He would have indicated his willingness, been presented great terms, and signed. If the delay is simply a negotiating tactic, and he wants to take it to the brink to squeeze LFC for as much as he can get, that will be apparent when he does eventually sign a new deal here.
But I think his intent is to leave on a Bosman for Real Madrid. If so, the play would be to drag it out with LFC, not sign, and tell the fans he won’t talk publicly about the contract negotiation, before leaving in summer.
What would be the harm of extending a contract for 12months… With a low value buy out clause inserted…!
If RM want him, let him go, and getting him on the cheap would still leave a signing on fee for Trent. We would get some dosh, as would TAA
Probably this. What better way to persuade him to leave his boyhood club by turning those fans against him?
And too many are responding just the way Marca and Real would like.
Maybe, maybe not.
Why would it be different in Trent’s case though, compared to others that are yet to sign?
If that’s an argument, then it’s valid for anyone that hasn’t signed yet, Mo, Virgil, Konate, etc.
…If it happens it happens, would love Barca to come in and snatch him though from the clutches of the dancing eyebrow
It’s like you’ve never seen the Spanish Big Two tapping up before…
Try saying that three times without breaking into Europe.
Go on - I dare you.
If I say that 3 times…
It would be like I used to do to summon my old mother in law :0)
If Trent wanted to go to Madrid, if there is an understanding the desire is mutual, and the delay in signing anything with us was due to that, signing that sort of deal would hurt his chances of that move.
I dont think it is right for someone in Trent’s position to maneuver a move away from liverpool under these circumstances, and if that happens it will negatively impact my view of him. But if that is his desire then simply holding out until he can sign for them for free is in his best interests.
And for all that people are speculating, this is playing out exactly the way it would no matter whether he wanted to stay or not.
It’s like people expect him to just bend over because he’s a local lad, and not secure the best conditions he can.
I understand the cries of “incompetence” from Liverpool over Salah, Van Dijk and Trent but remember that our DoF, seemingly groomed for the position for years, suddenly and unexpectedly quit which put in a position of not having a DoF. Then we got a temporary DoF who didn’t really have any authority in contract negotiations given that everyone knew he was just a random guy who would be gone soon then we identified the future with Edwards return and Hughes coming in but it coincided with Klopp publically announcing he was leaving. So in the last few years we’ve had effectively no real DoF for two of them and then an uncertain future under unknown leadership and management. It’s not so much incompetence as bad timing.
So who at Liverpool would you have been working on the contract extensions?
Remember we had no DoF, no TD, a manager that had announced he would be leaving at the end of that season, the coaching staff then all decided that it was the right time to end the project and would all leaave as well.
So we were looking to fill the role of the 2 people most likely to have been handling contract renewals, the peron to lead the club on the pitch plus his entire backroom staff, but you think we should have been focusing on player contract negotiations?
Yeah fair enough… Signing a 12month contract doesn’t mean he has to stay for 12months though… Sign it in January, he could still leave in the summer.
If the buy-out is set at £25m… Not sure RM would risk him going somewhere else for that sum of money, not when they can recuperate that figure at some future date years down the line (Casemiro anyone).
You make a valid point, so I will offer an opinion on why I think it is different. Trent is prime age, with years left of the clock. Signing him up, from the club’s perspective, is a no-brainer. Keep a great player in his peak years. And protect his transfer value by keeping him under contract.
The other two have the added factor of being nearer to the end of their peak playing career. So the calculus needs much more scrutiny for them, from the club.
How long of a deal? At what rate? And what is the assessment on the rate of decline in performance level? Tip-top for two more years? Great, sign here! Or does the data give some indication that the better move would be to Bob Paisley them both, and watch their legs go on someone else’s pitch?
FWIW I would give both VVD and Mo Salah a two year deal in a heartbeat, but the club has a lot to think about, especially if the terms being demanded are a stretch, not just in themselves, but in the knock-on effect of pulling salaries higher throughout the squad.
Edit
I don’t think Konate’s deal expires in summer 2025, so I didn’t include him in my response. Now that we have a functioning DOF and structure in place, I’m sure the right conversations will happen with all of our players as their deals get lower.