Trent, Salah and VVD

[Judge Jules]

They couldn't have directly forced him out, but you can bet there'd have been other takers besides Madrid if they'd slapped him straight on the market at that stage. Madrid will have been well aware of this and that's why, as others have said, they probably told him to do things this way. It's understandable, but that doesn't make it right.

Agree the club were almost certainly aware that something was cooking, but in the absence of definite info.they were faced with a choice between (a) moving a player on whom they'd have much preferred to keep and (b) hoping that a home-grown academy product was being up front with them. Madrid would have known that too.

 

[Stevesquash]

They couldn't have directly forced him out, but you can bet there'd have been other takers besides Madrid if they'd slapped him straight on the market at that stage. Madrid will have been well aware of this and that's why, as others have said, they probably told him to do things this way. It's understandable, but that doesn't make it right.

Agree the club were almost certainly aware that something was cooking, but in the absence of definite info.they were faced with a choice between (a) moving a player on whom they'd have much preferred to keep and (b) hoping that a home-grown academy product was being up front with them. Madrid would have known that too.

Even if there are other takers, cant force him to move.

At the end of the day, if he wants to run it down, he can.

What's unforgivable is letting that happen with 2 other players who are arguably our most important players all at the same time.

 

[Fabio]

I've given shit to Trent for a while, primarily because of his performances. If you perform poorly, can't get motivated for the big games, and generally don't act as the vice captain of the club, then bye.

He's more than allowed to leave and chase more success, but why should I be happy about it? Happy with him about it? Happy for him?

Why on earth would I want good players to leave us? Equally why should I be happy when good players don't turn up for us?

I criticised the shit out of Torres when he was shite for us before his move. I adored Suarez and called him a cunt when he left. I like Gerrard a LOT less than most fans because he actively flirted with 2 clubs. I love Fowler more than Gerrard. I love carra more than Gerrard.

Criticising Trent for poor performances and then criticising him for leaving I see as an irrelevant combo. You leave on your terms and you're a good player then I'll dislike you.

 

[Fabio]

Forgive me for being a fan of a club who wants their best players to want to play for them.

 

[Modo]

I feel like after Macca and Owen left, Gerrard and Carra tried to instill that there's no team bigger than LFC.
Obviously it's more of a pride thing, but it should mean more, especially if you're from the area.

 

[Fabio]

View: https://x.com/WrestlePurists/status/1905719244576473442?t=HQYEsoSpoaIbIf4Qdi2g4A&s=19 always fun to see football mentioned in wwe

 

[SummerOnions]

Lads come on, is anyone expecting Trent to defend himself?

 

[Judge Jules]

Even if there are other takers, cant force him to move.

At the end of the day, if he wants to run it down, he can.

What's unforgivable is letting that happen with 2 other players who are arguably our most important players all at the same time.

The point about other takers is not that he could be forced to move. It's that one or more of them might make him a better offer than Madrid, so they'd want to guard against that by getting him to act as he has.

I agree that Virgil and Salah are our most important players but I don't believe the club is any less aware of that than we are, so the assumption that they've simply sat back and "let" the contracts run down seems pretty silly to me. Negotiations have obv.been tough but IMO the club is 100% right in sticking to its valuations (which will have been sky-high already). Otherwise every other player is also going to think they can screw the club for whatever their agent dreams up.

 

[StevieM]

We can know because, if he'd told the club what he was going to do in good time, there's no way we'd have held on to him.

I'm sure the club does have contingency plans, but none that would have made a proper transfer fee for Trent remotely "irrelevant".

Well that’s entirely based on him making a decision to leave on or earlier than last summer.

Sorry don’t buy quite buy it.

Again, it’s all speculation as none of us know what has been said and to who - the likely truth is he ruled out nothing until he had both deals on the table to be able to make a decision.

The rationale for that would be - if he’d burnt his bridges with Liverpool it would weaken his negotiating position with Real.

Besides, we could have taken control of the situation and sold him in January if our only concern was getting money for him.

 

[StevieM]

I've given shit to Trent for a while, primarily because of his performances. If you perform poorly, can't get motivated for the big games, and generally don't act as the vice captain of the club, then bye.

He's more than allowed to leave and chase more success, but why should I be happy about it? Happy with him about it? Happy for him?

Why on earth would I want good players to leave us? Equally why should I be happy when good players don't turn up for us?

I criticised the shit out of Torres when he was shite for us before his move. I adored Suarez and called him a cunt when he left. I like Gerrard a LOT less than most fans because he actively flirted with 2 clubs. I love Fowler more than Gerrard. I love carra more than Gerrard.

Criticising Trent for poor performances and then criticising him for leaving I see as an irrelevant combo. You leave on your terms and you're a good player then I'll dislike you.

I don’t think anyone is happy about him leaving (apart from maybe @Holle - who hates him with a passion).

Yeah - we’re losing a good player, that’s not good at all.

 

[Judge Jules]

Well that’s entirely based on him making a decision to leave on or earlier than last summer.

Sorry don’t buy quite buy it.

Again, it’s all speculation as none of us know what has been said and to who - the likely truth is he ruled out nothing until he had both deals on the table to be able to make a decision.

The rationale for that would be - if he’d burnt his bridges with Liverpool it would weaken his negotiating position with Real.

Besides, we could have taken control of the situation and sold him in January if our only concern was getting money for him.

Well, I do buy it. Madrid wanting to tie him down early and thereby insure against being gazumped by other clubs seems the more probable scenario to me, and by some distance too. He'll have been told "We want you but on our terms, i.e.these."

We would have done what you said in January if we knew we needed to. The fact that we didn't is far more plausibly explained by the club being in the dark about his true intentions than it is by the daft idea that Michael Edwards of all people would have overseen such a lash-up.

 

[StevieM]

Well, I do buy it. Madrid wanting to tie him down early and thereby insure against being gazumped by other clubs seems the more probable scenario to me, and by some distance too. He'll have been told "We want you but on our terms, i.e.these."

We would have done what you said in January only if we knew we needed to, and *that* would have depended on him being straight with the club.

Sorry that doesn’t square with the narrative that he only wanted to leave for Madrid - that would mean that his overriding desire was to leave Liverpool and he’d have to accept the possibility of going anywhere.

I don’t think that’s the case.

Also, I don’t think the overall value of the deal changes for Real - it’s just a question of what proportion gets paid to the player and what gets paid to the club for them.

 

[Judge Jules]

I'm sure Madrid was first choice but I'm equally sure that, if other club(s) offered even more moolah, he'd have been quite willing to consider them.

 

[StevieM]

I'm sure Madrid was first choice but I'm equally sure that, if other club(s) offered even more moolah, he'd have been quite willing to consider them.

See, I don’t, because you’d have to believe that this is ALL about money then - and he’d be leveraging a potential Saudi Arabia bid to push Real higher.

I think if Real doesn’t put the offer on the table, which didn’t happen until a few days ago - then he re-signs and goes no-where.

 

[Judge Jules]

I don't believe it's "all" about money but I do think a better offer from elsewhere might very well have turned his head. In any case the main point about that is Real would most certainly have believed it and would have wanted to guard against it.

They may not have put anything in writing until a few days ago, but I don't believe for a single second that that was the first time he found out what he was going to get.

 

[darkstarexodus]

I'm sure Madrid was first choice but I'm equally sure that, if other club(s) offered even more moolah, he'd have been quite willing to consider them.

I'm honestly not sure. There are very few clubs that can offer similar money, prestige and chance of titles. Ruling out other English clubs, the only alternatives out there are arguably Real, Barca and Bayern.

 

[Judge Jules]

Not much I'd disagree with in that post as far as it goes, but even you mention two possible alternatives 😉 and, given that Real have probably offered an obscene amount already, I'd still bet that an even more lucrative offer would get TAA's serious attention.

 

[StevieM]

I don't believe it's "all" about money but I do think a better offer from elsewhere might very well have turned his head. In any case the main point about that is Real would most certainly have believed it and would have wanted to guard against it.

They may not have put anything in writing until a few days ago, but I don't believe for a single second that that was the first time he found out what he was going to get.

Sorry we’re going to have to agree to disagree on the ability of another club to turn his head - I don’t think that’s ever on.

I think the “guarding against” bit would have been the transfer fee component where Real would have offered a significant part of that value as a signing bonus - that amount would likely (along with wages) go up or down depending on if they had to pay any to the club.

Like - if they’d paid a £25m fee for him in Jan, - Trent would likely been offered a lower signing on fee and weekly wage as Real would have an overall deal value in mind.

Their additional leverage is the prestige and likely trophies that no other team is in a position to offer.

I’m sure Trent had a fairly good idea of what would be in the contract, but still.

Can you imagine what might have happened to our season if Trent had come back from his summer break (and it was later due to the Euros) and immediately informed the club that he wanted a new challenge with Slot merely weeks into the job - what sort of tone would that have set for the team going into a season when everyone was already talking about a big post-Klopp drop off?

 

[localny]

Trent and his brothers played the club, clear and simple. They succeeded. They'll reap millions, and will be held in low regard for decades. For some that's fine. All of this, is IF he's moving, which seems to be the case.

 

[tombrown]

Well, I do buy it. Madrid wanting to tie him down early and thereby insure against being gazumped by other clubs seems the more probable scenario to me, and by some distance too. He'll have been told "We want you but on our terms, i.e.these."

We would have done what you said in January if we knew we needed to. The fact that we didn't is far more plausibly explained by the club being in the dark about his true intentions than it is by the daft idea that Michael Edwards of all people would have overseen such a lash-up.

I like to think the overriding reason we didn't sell him in January was because we didn't want to disrupt our title challenge.

 

[Judge Jules]

Sorry we’re going to have to agree to disagree on the ability of another club to turn his head - I don’t think that’s ever on.

I think the “guarding against” bit would have been the transfer fee component where Real would have offered a significant part of that value as a signing bonus - that amount would likely (along with wages) go up or down depending on if they had to pay any to the club.

Like - if they’d paid a £25m fee for him in Jan, - Trent would likely been offered a lower signing on fee and weekly wage as Real would have an overall deal value in mind.

Their additional leverage is the prestige and likely trophies that no other team is in a position to offer.

I’m sure Trent had a fairly good idea of what would be in the contract, but still.

Can you imagine what might have happened to our season if Trent had come back from his summer break (and it was later due to the Euros) and immediately informed the club that he wanted a new challenge with Slot merely weeks into the job - what sort of tone would that have set for the team going into a season when everyone was already talking about a big post-Klopp drop off?

We've done most of this to death already but I will just deal with that last point, in answer to which I'd bet the farm that - granted that neither alternative would be welcome - the club would prefer to have known then than now.

 

[darkstarexodus]

Not much I'd disagree with in that post as far as it goes, but even you mention two possible alternatives 😉 and, given that Real have probably offered an obscene amount already, I'd still bet that an even more lucrative offer would get TAA's serious attention.

That gets into a question of whether we wanted to actively try to sell him and thereby play other clubs against each other versus giving it our best shot to re-sign him. I think it's clear that we tried the latter and we deemed that our chance of success in doing so - not to mention avoid torpedoing our season - lay in not trying to straddle both positions.

Can debate the merits of the approach if we end up not re-signing him, but I think we tried to convince him that it really DOES mean more here. Which included not trying to flog him off to the highest bidder. Time will tell if the club were right about how best to convince him to stay. I do know that we're going to be bringing the title back to L4 in less than two months though.

 

[Farkmaster]

Trent and his brothers played the club, clear and simple. They succeeded. They'll reap millions, and will be held in low regard for decades. For some that's fine. All of this, is IF he's moving, which seems to be the case.

The club fucked up, in a slightly unexpected set of circumstances. The concept of "being played" generally involves one naive party who is not aware they are in a game, while being outmanoeuvred by another party who is cynically willing to do whatever they can to get what they want; a trusting rube and a willing shark.

What we have here are two sets of lawyers and agents. They are playing a game. You can't be played in a game, you can either win or lose. It's been clear to anyone paying attention that Trent and his representatives were going to do exactly what they are doing right now, for at least a year. Some people seem to be reacting to it now, but that's only because you've been deluding yourself hoping it wouldn't happen.

If you want to be upset at any party, the club are the only ones that matter.

No one got played, the club just lost. If your response to that is to think that Trent is the guilty party, then you got played.

 

[localny]

Yeah, we differ on this. I remember former players who had these kind of opportunities like this, but didn't screw over the club and the fans in the process. I don't blame the club AT all for being in transition. I think they were too nice to him, and Klopp was likely part of this process.

Boyhood club MY ARSE

 

[Holle]

I don’t think anyone is happy about him leaving (apart from maybe @Holle - who hates him with a passion).

Yeah - we’re losing a good player, that’s not good at all.

Yup. I can't wait for June.

 

[StevieM]

I kind of hope hope, if/when he does sign the pre-contract for Real and him and Real ask if we can release him early for the club world cup - we say sure… for £75m, otherwise he can visit the tournament as a tourist.

Or at least leverage something useful out of Real like selling us Tchouameni at a reasonable price.

 

[Farkmaster]

Haha, "leverage."

 

[Beamrider]

I kind of hope hope, if/when he does sign the pre-contract for Real and him and Real ask if we can release him early for the club world cup - we say sure… for £75m, otherwise he can visit the tournament as a tourist.

Or at least leverage something useful out of Real like selling us Tchouameni at a reasonable price.

The reality is that we'll end up releasing him early for a relatively paltry fee, and not at all if he is carrying an injury. Ask too much and Real will say no and we'll end up paying another month's wages to him for doing sod all.

 

[Mamma Mia]

 

[StevieM]

The reality is that we'll end up releasing him early for a relatively paltry fee, and not at all if he is carrying an injury. Ask too much and Real will say no and we'll end up paying another month's wages to him for doing sod all.

I know - I just want us to be petty or leverage something out of Real.

Paying his wages for another month isn’t going to break the bank and and I’d rather do that to fuck real Madrid off even the tiniest little bit than save in paying Trents wages and taking a derisory payment from Real.

We can have him in cleaning the toilets at the training ground every day.