Liverpool FC Forum

[ivor_the_injun]

On the other hand, a long contract would help to keep his price up should he not do the business in England.

The number of times we hear that a player "only has 2 years left on his contract"...it often seems to impact on a transfer fee. I wonder if the extension to Sissoko's contract is because Rafa knows that he may be surplus to requirements in the next year or two, and he wants to safeguard the initial outlay of £5m+.

For the money we're paying out for Torres, it means that other teams - to a certain extent - would need to cough up to buy 3 or 4 years of his contract out if he has a poor couple of seasons.

Remember how Steve McLaren very publicly extended his contract as manager of Boro weeks before he was announced as England coach? Completely with a view to leaving his club with a decent whack on his departure. In that case I'm sure it was partially chairman and partially McLaren initiated. However, with players, some clubs are getting quite savvy with this, and it's good to see that we're one of them.

[bigmick]

On the question of anticipation and Torres, IMHO only a fool would expect him to come in and score heavily, quite simply because he hasn't done that in his career previously. If he can get into double figures in the Premiership and contribute eight or nine assists, that will be an excellent return in his first season. These lads who are banging on about 26million therefore we want 26 goals are at best being optimistic, and at worst talking out of their @rse.

[tommynax]

On the question of anticipation and Torres, IMHO only a fool would expect him to come in and score heavily, quite simply because he hasn't done that in his career previously. If he can get into double figures in the Premiership and contribute eight or nine assists, that will be an excellent return in his first season. These lads who are banging on about 26million therefore we want 26 goals are at best being optimistic, and at worst talking out of their @rse.

totally agree with you. doudle figures and plenty of assists would def please the anfield faithfull. once a player gives his all for the club like kuyt it doesnt really matter how many he scores. when rafa won the league with valencia i think their top scorer had 12 or 13 goals. now you wouldnt mind if he knocked that in and we won the league. hoestly think he,ll be worrshipped playing in gods number9

[7_Kewell]

there has been a lot of teams who haven't scored loads up front but won the league. Man yooo are famous for getting lots of goals from the midfield.

[Sabre]

Marca says that the negotiation is close to an end and the details are being decided. They comment that Gerrard will remain the better paid player with his 9M € a year (have those wage numbers appeared anywhere?) and Torres will be paid less -- which makes sense in my view because giving more money to new players doesn't help to settle the dressroom.

The only point in there's a slight disagreement is the lenght of contract. Liverpool  wants 6 years, according to Marca, and Torres doesn't want a so lenghty contract.

Normally they get this numbers right in Marca, but you never know with this papers.

6 years Sabre?

That seems very long.  What happens if he gets a bad injury in his first season?  I'd stick with the standard 4 years - if things work out and he's playing well and enjoying his football then he'll want to extend it.  Offering a 6 year contract is a big risk imo, he better be having the most stringent medical in history this week!

I'm not very keen on 6 years contracts neither, but not because of injuries, as most of top players, and by top players I mean premiership or primera players, are protected by insurances in case a bad injury occurs (at least here).

A lenghty contract gives you the possibility of negotiating at your will with other clubs when it comes to sell a player, but in the other hand, it doesn't help the motivation of the player and that's why I don't like so long contracts. My personal prefference is 4-5 year tops.

Anyhow, the real terms of the contract will be known as that info is always filtered in Spain somehow, so we only have to wait to know the details.

As for Bigmick's comment about only a fool would expect Torres would score massively, I agree, but I'm afraid there's lot of fools surrounding nowadays football 

P.S. I feel Torres will be very important, but in order to create danger and make other team mates better. All the 'stick' and 'warnings' I wrote about him are in order to say he won't score tons of goals as he's not a great finisher, but if I'm asked wheter he will improve the team, the answer is YES, but I won't say this too loud otherwise he might get the Morientes and Gonzalez curse.

[Scottbot]

Not only will we be aquiring somebody who can link the play, run at people, create chances and score his share of goals in the form of Torres, but my suspicion is we may be about to see the real Dirk Kuyt as well.

Released from his extremely unconvincing role as a Dennis Bergkamp impersonator, the Dutchman can at last be the striker the was bought to be. He has gamely tried to make up for his shortcomings in that role with unbelieveable amounts of effort and sheer endeavour, but now he can be let off the leash to do his stuff. Sometime before the first ball is kicked in the new season, somebody will do a predictions for the new year thread. In it, I will be making the bold claim that Kuyt may well be challenging for top golascorer in the Prem next season. My heartfelt hunch is that he is a very fine player indeed who has so far shown only a small portion of what he is capable of. The sad  but ultimately ineveitable passing of his father and the signing of a player who can genuinely fill the role which he has toiled away manfully trying to fill could be just what he needs. Mark my words, Kuyt is a good player and a steal at what we paid for him. Trust me on this one         

Am not so sure Mick. So who would play furthest forward in a strike pairing of Kuyt and Torres? It was/is my impression that it would be Torres with Kuyt continuing to play a deeper role. I'm a fan of Kuyt but i'm not so sure the role he played last year was entirely down to him acting on orders from Benitez. I would defo like to see him playing further up the pitch and he needs to spend more time in the penalty box but i would argue that we saw him play his natural game (or thereabouts) last year. I say that because most players (even if they have been under strict instructions) revert to their natural game during patches of just about every game. Put someone like Luis Garcia or Stevie Gerrard out on the wing and they will invariably drift inside where they are most comfortable. Ask Michael Owen to play as a withdrawn striker and he will no doubt end up playing on the shoulder and the first into the penalty box on several occasions during the game. So i don't really buy the idea that Kuyt is a completely different player to the one we saw last season. For me the player we saw on his debut is the player i would like to see week in week out. That day he was dropping deep, facing up quickly, running at defenders and shooting on site. Direct, selfish and dangerous. More of that please Dirk.

As for Torres, perhaps Sabes can tell us how he has been deployed these past few seasons? furthest forward, as a 2nd striker or in an out-an-out 2-upfront partnership?

[Roger Red Hat]

i dunno if someone has already said this but you've gotta laff at man city's cheek. did they actually think he'd choose them over liverpool???

[maypaxvobiscum]

i dunno if someone has already said this but you've gotta laff at man city's cheek. did they actually think he'd choose them over liverpool???

they are thinking with their dicks if so 

[The Manhattan Project]

When Torres heard that a team wearing sky blue managed by Sven wanted to sign him, he thought it was Lazio.

[god_bless_john_houlding]

When Torres heard that a team wearing sky blue managed by Sven wanted to sign him, he thought it was Lazio.

Ah well if his football doesn't reach top standards in England his intelligence certainly will 

[egyptian liverpoolian]

but i kow he is announced he will never left atl.madrid

[RedorDead]

It's a good post John and one I agree with pretty much most of. For my part, not having seen much of Torres and having listened to Sabes and the like, there are obvious concerns but mostly just anticipation. From what the people who know kid are saying, we may actually be about to get a "two for the price of one" deal. Not only will we be aquiring somebody who can link the play, run at people, create chances and score his share of goals in the form of Torres, but my suspicion is we may be about to see the real Dirk Kuyt as well.

Released from his extremely unconvincing role as a Dennis Bergkamp impersonator, the Dutchman can at last be the striker the was bought to be. He has gamely tried to make up for his shortcomings in that role with unbelieveable amounts of effort and sheer endeavour, but now he can be let off the leash to do his stuff. Sometime before the first ball is kicked in the new season, somebody will do a predictions for the new year thread. In it, I will be making the bold claim that Kuyt may well be challenging for top golascorer in the Prem next season. My heartfelt hunch is that he is a very fine player indeed who has so far shown only a small portion of what he is capable of. The sad  but ultimately ineveitable passing of his father and the signing of a player who can genuinely fill the role which he has toiled away manfully trying to fill could be just what he needs. Mark my words, Kuyt is a good player and a steal at what we paid for him. Trust me on this one         

I couldn't agree more with this post.
I think Rafa may change his front pairing a lot less this coming season then last. Injuries allowing I expect to see Torres and Kuyt  play together week in and week out and go on to form a lethal partnership. Within that partnership it is my belief that Kuyt will score the more goals, like Mick says if he is freed to play further up I think he will be very dangerous, I totally disagree with some posters who say that Kuyt isn't a good finisher, he scored buckets of goals in the Dutch Eredivisie and I think this season will see him do similar here.
Mick, if you make that prediction about him being amongst the top scorers I'll second it.

[Scottbot]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk_i-cFqbYg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuJhDFkNAw

[tommynax]

have a bad feeling this deal is gonna fall through. maybe cause its just to good to br true

[matrix]

have a bad feeling this deal is gonna fall through. maybe cause its just to good to br true