I don’t think it is the same as Macca - didn’t Macca allegedly tell the club he was going to sign a new contract with us but only never intended to as he was deliberately run down his contract?
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I respect (at least) all of them: Souness, McManaman, Owen, etc. Even feel sorry for some of them how they’re remembered.
A lot of these contract issues (or players leaving on a free) are certainly not black and white.
Of course I was sad when Owen signed for United, when I was 19.
But the time he spent with us and how good he was overshadows it.
We’re all different and for some it comes with age, or some just can’t accept and that’s it.
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And had a knock on effect with regards to Owen’s own decision shortly afterwards.
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I’ll admit that losing Trent on a free does hurt. But that was probably the only way he was going to leave the club.
Had he another 2 years in his contract. Madrid wouldn’t have gone in for him because the price that the club would have asked for Trent would have been pretty high.
People are free to have whatever opinions they have, but I dont think it’s fair treating one of the first big bosman moves as being the same as what today is a fairly standard way of players engaging with their clubs.
The difference between the cases is also apparent in the different way the respective players engaged with the club over the negotiations. With Maca we definitively felt he strung us along, and no one is suggesting any such thing with Trent. We also, even in inadvertently, helped contribute to the situation where he was right to considering other opportunities. Starting negotiations was reportedly the very first things Hughes did, even before his official start date, but that was already 9 months later than it should have started because of the Ward situations. It was then complicated by the Jurgen news meaning by the time Trent.
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Trent’s last extension was for 4 years. At that moment already I thought he wants to see at 26 whether it will be time for something new before it’s too late and not do a “Kane” (it obviously wasn’t too late for him, but you get the point).
Been thinking that every year
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Good luck to Trent. Won the lot here. Leaves to try something new. I completely understand and there’s no hard feelings toward him.
If there is one slight regret - and it’s just money, not emotion, but there’s a sense of fair play wrapped up in it - I would have like to see Trent engineer a win-win-win. Ensure a modest transfer fee so LFC can reinvest it on another player, while he still gets his big move to Real Madrid and Real Madrid get their man at a reduced price. They just passed the billion euro threshold for revenue and it would have been peanuts for them, but Liverpool have been cut out of the win-win-win and the deal sees only Trent and Real Madrid get what they want. Mac Allister did better for Brighton, for giving him his big break in the Prem.
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Do it Wee Joe!
He saw his contract out which he was fully entitled to do. He had no obligation to generate any transfer fee as for financial hit whats that exactly. Its faux outrage for the sake of outrage.
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For me it’s a slight regret. Those were the words used. Outrage is way too strong. I don’t feel that. Overall I’m chilled, and good luck to him.
I would have rather he engineered a win-win-win. I don’t even know if that was possible. Mac Allister did it and Brighton at least got a modest payday rather than nothing. For a financial juggernaut like Real Madrid I would have much rather see them pay something, but it wasn’t to be.
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What I’m about to say should not be interpreted as us “dropping the ball” but we created the situation for him where he entered the final year of a contract without a solid offer and with questions about why he should commit further.
This was an unusual situation caused by a series of unexpected events that even a well run club will have to scramble to stay on track with. That is a very different situation than a player purposefully running his contract down.
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Yeah, but in Rush’s defence, playing in Italy was like playing in a foreign country 
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Now’s your chance to express your view in a democratic poll:
- It’s the club’s fault for being stingy
- It’s Trent’s fault for being greedy
- It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the right time for a change
- Everyone’s a bastard and I’m in a massive strop
- Everyone’s a bastard and I’m watching horses running around
0
voters
Who knows if they would pay something, who knows if the club wanted that situation where it appears we are a selling club. You can’t imagine a situation whats never been even mentioned.
None of the above: everyone’s a bastard, true, but I’m chilling on the sofa watching the racing.
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It’s not 'faux" and it’s not even outrage. It’s disappointment.
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Everyone’s a bastard (fuckwit) and I’m always in a massive strop. 
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Fair enough. There’s a lot we don’t know. Just expressing an opinion that I’d have preferred he did something like Mac Allister, if he could.
Overall the writing has been on the wall for a long time, there’s no real surprise with this, he has won the lot with us, and he gets to try a new team and culture and life in the sun. I wish him all the best.