Contractual issues

[DannyMan2006]

Well, in light of all the recent mongering I thought I'd start a thread for everyone's thoughts on this.

The Gerrard situation.

Rodgers wanted him to stay. In the summer Gerrard wanted to stay and was ready to sign a new deal. Took until November time for the club to give him one to consider. Key to note, Gerrard made a point of saying it was the "aggressiveness" shown by LA Galaxy to get the deal done that convinced him sign for them.

Also to note, was the fact that Gerrard called out the club to get the Sterling & Henderson deals done. Something isn't right when that's happening. Normally Gerrard will give out the line that those matters are personal to other players and nothing to do with him.

The main worry

In 2005 Gerrard nearly left because he wasn't made to feel wanted. They let his contract drag on thinking it was a formality, and the club nearly got its fingers burned. This was repeated this season and now he's leaving. I think we are in danger of this being repeated time and again.

Never mind the Sterling saga. Rumour has it Henderson has only 18 months left on his current deal. Flanno has about 6 months. How has this been allowed to happen? These boys should have over two years left and when it comes lower it should be sign up or ship out at maximum value.

Now we all just assume these boys will stay, they likely will. But if Gerrard could nearly leave due to feeling unwanted, so could they. It's not just a money thing. It's about showing the players that we consider them important enough to not allow their contract to drag. And when you let it run, the agents will tell the likes of Flanno that he could get a nice few million quids signing bonus if he were to leave for another club.

This is starting to get beyond a joke.

[ChrisDR1968]

If the manager wants certain players to be a part of the club's future then it's up to the him to communicate that to them (show them the love if you will ) then the club can take over (presumably Ian Ayre) from there and hammer out a contract extension.

Situations like McManaman's in the 90's and Gerrard's a decade ago was incompetence on the club's part. Pure and simple.

[DannyMan2006]

If the manager wants certain players to be a part of the club's future then it's up to the him to communicate that to them (show them the love if you will ) then the club can take over (presumably Ian Ayre) from there and hammer out a contract extension.

Situations like McManaman's in the 90's and Gerrard's a decade ago was incompetence on the club's part. Pure and simple.

Well my opinion is that the Incompetence is being repeated.

Gerrard situation: start of the season he thinks he's in every week. Signs for LAG around the time he's in and out. By the time the season ends he could be a first teamer again and would stay.

Either way, if he gets a contract last summer he signs it. Probably thinking he can win the league.

[Exiled_red]

I am with you I worry about the way a few things have been handled. Whether you want to keep players at the club or cash in on them you need to keep them on decent length of contracts otherwise you risk losing them.

IMO you shouldn't let the contracts run down below 2 years. The exception being players over the age of around 33, so I wasn't too worried about the Gerrard situation, but I did expect him to sign on for another year. The thing that worries me is the length of contract of Henderson, I'm not sure if we will offer Flanagan a contract (not doing so would be a mistake IMO) or if Sterling will accept one.

I understand that we are concerned about not over paying in wages (or transfer fees but that's another issue) as we are worried about sending out the wrong message and FFP etc. IMO what we should be doing (and I have said this in the Sterling thread) is offer contracts that offer a decent but not fantastic basic salary and say your salary will increase based on certain incentives. Say £10k a week for every season that a striker scores 20 goals. This gives the player an incentive to play well while the club aren't lumbered with a huge salary for a player who hasn't performed.

[DannyMan2006]

The issue with the Sterling one is said to be the incentives towards being in the CL. All clubs do it in the main, but at LFC it's an issue. As in if you're at Man City it's not an issue as they will always pretty much make the top 4, but at LFC it's less likely.

Have to remember it's his agent doing the negotiations, not the player.

[Exiled_red]

I can understand the incentives towards getting in the CL, winning the league, or cups etc. But surely personal incentives are something that the player has more control of. If his finishing needs improving and he has an incentive based on how many goals he scores it should encourage him to stay behind and do extra training or whatever. The smaller, personal landmarks/achievements will push further towards the club being in the CL and winning trophies.

[Chris]

There's definitely something a bit off about the way we are doing things in my opinion. Thats why I'm not joining in with hammering Raheem for supposedly being greedy.

Rodgers made out in the summer like Coutinho's would be done when we got back off tour, signed in Feb, he said Flanno had to get a new deal in the summer as he had 1 year left, here we are and he's got 4 months left, Henderson's situation is shambolic, we should never be getting to a point where an asset like that has under 18 months on his deal, it's so Arsenal. I've no doubt he'll sign one but I dont think it's a good place to be in. Gerrard's warning to the club to hurry up was pretty telling I thought.

[The_weatherman]

There's definitely something a bit off about the way we are doing things in my opinion. Thats why I'm not joining in with hammering Raheem for supposedly being greedy.

Rodgers made out in the summer like Coutinho's would be done when we got back off tour, signed in Feb, he said Flanno had to get a new deal in the summer as he had 1 year left, here we are and he's got 4 months left, Henderson's situation is shambolic, we should never be getting to a point where an asset like that has under 18 months on his deal, it's so Arsenal. I've no doubt he'll sign one but I dont think it's a good place to be in. Gerrard's warning to the club to hurry up was pretty telling I thought.

I was uncomfortable with the warning from Gerrard and I think he's not pleased with how the club is handling negotiations. It could cost us in the end so we really need to tie these deals up before the summer, we'll only have more negotiations then. Also it sends the wrong signals if our hottest prospect's and future captain's futures are uncertain.

[Havors]

greedy ****ing players and agents! sterling is 20 years old and already earns in one week more than 99% of the world earn in a year/s

uefa's financial fair play **** needs to move to cap or control player wages imho. When is enough enough? when players are earning £1m per week? while the clubs make more and more money and the fans have to pay more and more.

something is not right.

[The_weatherman]

greedy ****ing players and agents! sterling is 20 years old and already earns in one week more than 99% of the world earn in a year/s

uefa's financial fair play **** needs to move to cap or control player wages imho. When is enough enough? when players are earning £1m per week? while the clubs make more and more money and the fans have to pay more and more.

something is not right.

I agree, everybody does. But we can't take moral highground on this, then we'll be left behind and always starting over. Now we need to build on this fantastic core of young promising players.

[The Birdman]

Main issue is our fans are more hysterical because some genuinely fear we could lose some of our best players, Chelsea started negotiations with Hazard before we did with Sterling yet they haven't agreed anything.
There's no press hype or hysteria about that is there?

Also, Coutinho's was done in a blink of an eye which means more than likely the hold up is with the payers and/or their agent's rather than the club.

With FFP every penny counts so players on (relatively for them) high basics like Flanagan and Hendo are difficult to negotiate with because we don't have any room for manoeuvre.

Sterling is just a top 10 best young player in the world (maybe, certainly Europe) and his agent is trying to get the best deal.

I've said this elsewhere previously, why should the club be bending over to accommodate Flanagan's demands? he's been in the first team for 6 months in the last 4 years and spent all this season injured.
If he wasn't scouse every fan would be saying '**** him off he's **** and never plays anyway'

[The Birdman]

greedy ****ing players and agents! sterling is 20 years old and already earns in one week more than 99% of the world earn in a year/s

uefa's financial fair play **** needs to move to cap or control player wages imho. When is enough enough? when players are earning £1m per week? while the clubs make more and more money and the fans have to pay more and more.

something is not right.

FFP has capped it, wages has to be a certain % of income, that's why FFP works for the biggest clubs, their income is higher so their respective % to spend on wages is higher.
Hence why we have commercial partners for everything and 80% of the new space with the ground redevelopment is corporate.
All about clubs living within their means but when the means aren't equal it's just as ****ed up as before except now the elite have stopped filthy rich people coming in and buying a club to break into their clique.

[Havors]

FFP has capped it, wages has to be a certain % of income, that's why FFP works for the biggest clubs, their income is higher so their respective % to spend on wages is higher.
Hence why we have commercial partners for everything and 80% of the new space with the ground redevelopment is corporate.
All about clubs living within their means but when the means aren't equal it's just as ****ed up as before except now the elite have stopped filthy rich people coming in and buying a club to break into their clique.

interesting! and yeah that system seems to solve nothing

[Chris]

I was uncomfortable with the warning from Gerrard and I think he's not pleased with how the club is handling negotiations. It could cost us in the end so we really need to tie these deals up before the summer, we'll only have more negotiations then. Also it sends the wrong signals if our hottest prospect's and future captain's futures are uncertain.

[Scaramanga]

for me, this is precisely what the players, clubs and agents should be doing over the summer months when there is no football being played. Have a window for contract revisions/extensions and then there can be no excuse.