Jordan Henderson

[Doc_Piptorious]

Just to confirm, I don't want him to leave. I pretty much agree with everything you've said there, but was relating to Jaco's Pjanic purchase / Henderson sale. They're not like for like replacements by any means, I think he was meaning the squad place being taken.

Henderson's importance was only magnified by the Arsenal game where he was stuck out at WB and the midfield, bolstered by the magnificent Joe Allen, was completely sterile, out thought, out manoeuvred and embarrassingly dominated.

Its just a shame wee Joe's contract wasn't the one with a few months left on it.

Pretty much. Was not comparing their styles of play, but rather throwing out a name that would improve our first team to a greater degree than losing Henderson would weaken it.

What I mean is that Henderson, Lucas, Allen, and Can does not offer quite as many options as Pjanic, Lucas, Allen, and Can.

The latter foursome, thanks to the inclusion of Pjanic, offers more by way of guile and playmaking than the four names we have now.


Henderson is a player I rate and he does bring many qualities to the first team, but Pjanic would bring stuff that none of the other (including Henderson) offer, whereas a lot of what Henderson does could be replicated (although to how high a level is very much open to debate) by the other three.

But if I was to go and look for a high energy replacement for Henderson, and look for someone a little closer to Henderson in terms of skillset, then names like Matuidi, and Nainggolan could be banded about. How much they would cost and what wages they would accept is of course yet another hypothetical conversation

[Doc_Piptorious]

Suarez was on 200.000, Gerrard on 150.000 wasn't he? But Gerrards contract was signed on those terms a while ago, he'd probably have signed a 200.000 a week contract today.

Yeah supposedly it would be/have been Suarez on 200k, Gerrard on 150k and Sturridge on 130k.


So if Sterling and Henderson were given contracts of £150k a week they would be getting moved into that bracket financially, so for me I would be expecting them to be big performers and regular match winners like the other three. I just don't think Henderson and Sterling are at that level yet.

Makes more sense to me to go with £90k to £100k offers and have pretty high goal/assist/win bonuses tacked on. That way if the players do perform very well their wages will be topped up even further on a very regular basis.

[The_weatherman]

All the reports seem to along that Henderson rejected 80 k and wants 100 k. I'd say sign him up ASAP, we don't need this hanging above our heads going into the summer. Sterling I don't care that much about, he should be sold to the highest bidder for all I care.

Edit: So far this season, the two players who have produced the most are Henderson and Sterling, both on six goals but Henderson has one more assist on 7. So along with Sakho, Lucas and Coutinho I'd say they were our most important players so far this season. It's diabolical to be having these problems now this close to summer.

[Lecter]

All depends on what the level he wants is.


If he wants circa £90k to £100k then that would be about as high as I would go, but if he want £130k, £150k or higher, then not a chance.

As for the arguement that getting an improvement in would be far more expensive, well that depends on how much Henderson actually wants in wages and how much the replacement would want.

Take Pjanic for example, he signed his new contract last year and given that his new contract only out him in the £45k to £50k bracket then he might see a contract that gives him £80k or £90k a week as enough to make him want to move.

So if Henderson wanted £150k a week and Pjanic would play for £90k we straight away are saving £3m a year on wages. Over the length of a four year contract that comes to £12m.

Say we sell Henderson and get £13m to £16m for him. Then we buy Pjanic for around £25m to £30m and we are paying him £60k less a week that what it would have cost to keep Henderson.

Over the course of Pjanic's contract that would leave us breaking even or possible only spending an extra two million to bring in a guy who looks like he would be an upgrade.

You are on the same page as me, as these sort of calculations are what I am on about

The reality is that only FSG know how much Henderson wants and how much any package for a replacement (be it Pjanic or somebody else) wants

My guess is we are going to have to pay hefty wages to attract people in the summer because chances are we wont be in the CL

And finally I'd question whether Pjanic fulfills the same type of role as Henderson

I could be wrong but he strikes me as more of an attacking midfielder than a box to box player

The last thing we need is another out and out attacking midfielder

[Roboklopp]

Paying hendo £100-110K pw shouldn't be an issue for us. If it is then you had to ask questions about the direction we are headed. It's very different from Sterl asking for £150K pw.

[The Birdman]

FWIW my take on the Hendo contract is that FSG know/think he will sign so it isn't a priority for them.
It's a priority to us panicking fans as we don't have all the info and it's ramped up by the media.

I think before the end of the season (i.e before the summer silly season and less than 12 months left) it'll be announced that he's signed a new long term deal.

No other logical explanation as to why we'd leave it this late, there isn't anything coming from our end at having to sell if he doesn't sign, it's all quiet (as it should be) that tells me that we aren't panicking about it.

No panicking or public positioning = we'll offer him what he'll accept to sign.

[Doc_Piptorious]

All the reports seem to along that Henderson rejected 80 k and wants 100 k. I'd say sign him up ASAP, we don't need this hanging above our heads going into the summer. Sterling I don't care that much about, he should be sold to the highest bidder for all I care.

Edit: So far this season, the two players who have produced the most are Henderson and Sterling, both on six goals but Henderson has one more assist on 7. So along with Sakho, Lucas and Coutinho I'd say they were our most important players so far this season. It's diabolical to be having these problems now this close to summer.

Well if £100k is his demand then I would certainly not be against him getting something in that range.

[Roboklopp]

Let us hope so.

[Doc_Piptorious]

You are on the same page as me, as these sort of calculations are what I am on about

The reality is that only FSG know how much Henderson wants and how much any package for a replacement (be it Pjanic or somebody else) wants

My guess is we are going to have to pay hefty wages to attract people in the summer because chances are we wont be in the CL

And finally I'd question whether Pjanic fulfills the same type of role as Henderson

I could be wrong but he strikes me as more of an attacking midfielder than a box to box player

The last thing we need is another out and out attacking midfielder

As said in an earlier post I was not comparing Pjanic and Henderson in terms of style, I was just picking a name that we have been linked with who I think would be able to replace Henderson through adding something very different to the team.

Pjanic is capable of playing in a box to box role though, but where he really looks good is as the teams playmaker and he can play make from an advanced midfield or do it just from deep.

I just feel that we have not had a clever passer in the team for some time now and certainly not one who can be played through in order to set the tempo for the team.


Good point as well about FSG being the ones who will know what Henderson's demands are. People like on on various forums will be going for the most part on hearsay, and the actual figures may be far lower than those rumoured.

My only objection to paying Henderson whatever he wants is if what he wants is in the £130k or above bracket as I feel he is not giving us enough just yet to warrant that. But if he is looking for a figure in the £90k to £100k mark, then I think he offers enough over the course of a season to warrant that

[5europeancups]

I think he will be gone in the summer as will Sterling

I am not that bothered about Sterling going we will get a shedload of cash for him but Henderson I think we should give him what he wants

He has only 12 months left on his contract this summer, we probably will be lucky to get what we paid for him (£13-16m) and the cost of a replacement will be much much higher

As for your post the realities of all football contracts is they are absurd and grossly over inflated, I have no real problems with players trying to maximise their value. There is no need for introspection from their behalf because we would all do the same in their position

He works very hard and he is skillful, but I believe that he probably lacks the character to be a real Liverpool captain. He seems a little too nice, and I think he disapppears a bit too much when things go a bit wrong.

I always compare players of his ilk with Souey, which is alot to live up too of course. Maybe he is one of those James Milner type of players. Dull routine, but efficient. but I personally remain to be convinced. Any silly bid of around 30m I would probably be very tempted.

[Fierce]

FWIW my take on the Hendo contract is that FSG know/think he will sign so it isn't a priority for them.
It's a priority to us panicking fans as we don't have all the info and it's ramped up by the media.

I think before the end of the season (i.e before the summer silly season and less than 12 months left) it'll be announced that he's signed a new long term deal.

No other logical explanation as to why we'd leave it this late, there isn't anything coming from our end at having to sell if he doesn't sign, it's all quiet (as it should be) that tells me that we aren't panicking about it.

No panicking or public positioning = we'll offer him what he'll accept to sign.

I also think we should pay him the £100k he wants. The 'replacement' question is valid, can anyone name a player in world football that we could financially straight swap for, that would be as good as Henderson is?

[Doc_Piptorious]

He works very hard and he is skillful, but I believe that he probably lacks the character to be a real Liverpool captain. He seems a little too nice, and I think he disapppears a bit too much when things go a bit wrong.

I always compare players of his ilk with Souey, which is alot to live up too of course. Maybe he is one of those James Milner type of players. Dull routine, but efficient. but I personally remain to be convinced. Any silly bid of around 30m I would probably be very tempted.

Imagine what a midfield player with his abilities and drive would cost in the modern game

[ChrisDR1968]

Imagine what a midfield player with his abilities and drive would cost in the modern game

The only downside is that he'd be sent off at least 4 times a season if he played the way he did in today's football.

I well remember my Dad wincing at least twice a game when we were watching a game at Anfield due to Souness's physical (or should I say nasty) style

[Doc_Piptorious]

The only downside is that he'd be sent off at least 4 times a season if he played the way he did in today's football.

I well remember my Dad wincing at least twice a game when we were watching a game at Anfield due to Souness's physical (or should I say nasty) style

Yeah but he also had the sort of silky skills that would make him a superstar in the modern game. I think a lot of people think of him (the player version rather than the manager) and recall the physical stuff before they remember the finesse he was capable of.

He was probably the most complete central midfielder that I have seen play for Liverpool. My favourite way to describe how good he was to folk who never saw him play is to say that if you crossed a peak Roy Keane with a peak Alonso that you would only be some of the way towards a peak Souness.

[Exiled_red]

FWIW my take on the Hendo contract is that FSG know/think he will sign so it isn't a priority for them.
It's a priority to us panicking fans as we don't have all the info and it's ramped up by the media.

I think before the end of the season (i.e before the summer silly season and less than 12 months left) it'll be announced that he's signed a new long term deal.

No other logical explanation as to why we'd leave it this late, there isn't anything coming from our end at having to sell if he doesn't sign, it's all quiet (as it should be) that tells me that we aren't panicking about it.

No panicking or public positioning = we'll offer him what he'll accept to sign.

I'm not so sure, the club seemed fairly confident that Sterling would sign a new contract months back, and while that may be his (Sterling's) agent messing about, the club could have handled things better, assuming people will sign and putting things off and taking people for granted doesn't inspire loyalty or comittment. Also Gerrard and Carragher have been somewhat critical of the club's recent handling of new contracts and I can't say I blame them to be honest.