Liverpool FC Forum

by **crim cram** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:27 am

The other question to ask is not can he be replaced, but can he be replaced for 12million? Probably not.

If the player wants to go, you let him go, but only for the right fee. We should have told Chelsea to pay 18 mil. or fck off, if the player is going to sulk, let him do it in the reserves. We're better than this!

by **stmichael** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:27 am

aCe' wrote:As far as I can tell, Meireles is one of our most versatile players as evident by the different positions he played for the club last season ( CM, LM, RM, AM, SS). All positions hes played with us, no ?

Just out of curiosity what do you think his best position is? Hodgson didn't have a clue and I don't think Kenny did either, hence his reluctance to play him.

Sometimes being played in different positions can be seen as making you a "jack of all trades master of none" (unless you're steven gerrard). It was complete ineptitude on Hodgson's part that he kept playing Mereiles wide when he had no history of playing there in the past at Porto. He'd try his best but looked lost. For me he looked at his best when playing off the striker away at Wolves when I thought he was superb. However now we don't really play with a man in the hole as such and even if we did you'd have Suarez in that position everyday of the week.

by **Reg** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:28 am

Raul is not the future, neither is Gerrard. The club policy is to focus on youngsters so Raul leaving from an over crowded midfield is to be expected. We top top dollar for a 28 year old. SG has other attributes.

Things are moving per the gameplan, Kenny is moving forward.

by **Kharhaz** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:28 am

stmichael wrote:
Kharhaz wrote:So aside from scoring goals, making a £1 million profit on him, changing games for the better for us, he is a squad player.

Is it just me who is failing to see the argument here?

he had a purple patch when he scored 5 goals in 6 games.

charlie adam will contribute far more in terms of goals, assists and generally having an impact on our play over the course of a season than this guy did.

Let me make this clear. I am not dismissing the players we have signed, not for a minute. What I am angry about is letting one of our best players leave, for a relatively small fee to one of our rivals. I have total faith in who Dalglish has signed, but I am really miffed about letting a fantastic player leave for next to nothing to our rivals.

I really do think this is going to hurt us. Its this that is eating away at me, if we sell Meireles, ok, but to chelsea? no. That is plain stupid.

by **sgs** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:30 am

Raul is a good player, but a squad player. Our system requires a flexibility he does not offer enough of. For anyone to suggest we don't have a system yet is ridiculous. At 28 we can do better than Raul.

Its a very shrewd piece of business...

besides, we are better covered in CM than in wide forward.

I hope we do look at Affelay in january...

by **crim cram** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:31 am

Reg wrote:Raul is not the future, neither is Gerrard. The club policy is to focus on youngsters so Raul leaving from an over crowded midfield is to be expected. We top top dollar for a 28 year old. SG has other attributes.

Things are moving per the gameplan, Kenny is moving forward.

Don't tell that to Bellamy, he signed a two year deal.

by **ethanr** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:32 am

stmichael wrote:
Kharhaz wrote:So aside from scoring goals, making a £1 million profit on him, changing games for the better for us, he is a squad player.

Is it just me who is failing to see the argument here?

he had a purple patch when he scored 5 goals in 6 games.

charlie adam will contribute far more in terms of goals, assists and generally having an impact on our play over the course of a season than this guy did.

I may be the only one, but I still rate Adam better than Meireles. I think Adam contributes a lot more, he can last a full 90 which Meireles has never been able to do, and he was the most inconsistent player we had last season. Please don't say I'm just saying this because he left, I've always said these exact things about Meireles. Did I want him to go to cheslki? No, but There's no way he's every going to be better than Lampard or Essien. I'd probably start Mikel over him as well...

We've got Adam, Lucas and Henderson right now, which is more than enough. When Stevie comes back we'll have 4 great CM's... I don't know why people are freaking out.

by **Simari** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:34 am

Kharhaz wrote:
stmichael wrote:
Kharhaz wrote:So aside from scoring goals, making a £1 million profit on him, changing games for the better for us, he is a squad player.

Is it just me who is failing to see the argument here?

he had a purple patch when he scored 5 goals in 6 games.

charlie adam will contribute far more in terms of goals, assists and generally having an impact on our play over the course of a season than this guy did.

Let me make this clear. I am not dismissing the players we have signed, not for a minute. What I am angry about is letting one of our best players leave, for a relatively small fee to one of our rivals. I have total faith in who Dalglish has signed, but I am really miffed about letting a fantastic player leave for next to nothing to our rivals.

I really do think this is going to hurt us. Its this that is eating away at me, if we sell Meireles, ok, but to chelsea? no. That is plain stupid.

Or perhaps help us by making those that Kenny has put his trust in, realise they have to perform to the highest standards?

Don't get too down Khar

He would definitely have given us depth in squad, but I'm certain this will be addressed in January.

by **Greavesie** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:38 am

I think we got what he's worth. Well, maybe about 15 million but he's not worth more than that. Certainly not the marquee signing modric could have been

kharhaz, how much do you honestly think he's worth?

by **Bad Bob** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:39 am

One thing we haven't seen discussed much is the way Chelsea have done business with us the last two windows. Twice now they've been in for our player, been knocked back and then presto, the player puts in an 11th hour transfer request that puts the club under pressure. Of course, the first time we got them to cough up 50 million for a player who looks to be on the decline. This time out, the deal looks less favourable to us although time will tell whether it hurts us.

Of course, there's always the option to refuse to negotiate regardless of the transfer request. I gather some of you think we should have (the don't sell to rivals axiom). Is that good business or good squad management though? If the want-away ends up staying does it hurt squad morale? And do we sink our chances of getting this kind of money for him in the next window, after he's done the proverbially rotting in the reserves? Questions, questions...

by **aCe'** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:39 am

stmichael wrote:
aCe' wrote:As far as I can tell, Meireles is one of our most versatile players as evident by the different positions he played for the club last season ( CM, LM, RM, AM, SS). All positions hes played with us, no ?

Just out of curiosity what do you think his best position is? Hodgson didn't have a clue and I don't think Kenny did either, hence his reluctance to play him.

Sometimes being played in different positions can be seen as making you a "jack of all trades master of none" (unless you're steven gerrard). It was complete ineptitude on Hodgson's part that he kept playing Mereiles wide when he had no history of playing there in the past at Porto. He'd try his best but looked lost. For me he looked at his best when playing off the striker away at Wolves when I thought he was superb. However now we don't really play with a man in the hole as such and even if we did you'd have Suarez in that position everyday of the week.

Hes a central midfielder. For Portugal he plays as a deep playmaker and thats where he plays his best football. Alongside Lucas (the Adam role) he would have shone imo.

He has an excellent range of passing that he didnt get to display with us given the positions we played him. Still, from his through balls and linkup play you could tell that his game intelligence was right up there. He also has an engine that is vastly underrated by the fans and according to the club he was the second fittest player in the side closely behind Kuyt. I think his all round contribution was impressive and the way he got himself into good positions through off the ball movement is not something you see everyday from a player in his position. Chelsea imo have got a real bargain here and if paired with Essien down the middle they can really make things tick for them. I remember in some other thread talking about Chelsea needing to go back to a 4-3-3 and with Meireles, Lampard and Essien they have 3 of the best in terms of all round qualities. Add that to their impressive attack and defense and all of a sudden they are back to being some way ahead of us.

I absolutely dont see the logic in letting a good player leave (same with Murphy, Hamman, Sissoko, Riera...etc) especially if we are not 100% certain that we have improved in the department. Players generally improve from one season to the next when they stay at a club and its never a good idea changing the makeup of the side year in year out. For me, its one of the main if not the main reason why ManUtd are where they are today.

by **Raoul** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:41 am

I'm disappointed. Meireles is a good player, and we've gone from having far too many CMs to being a bit light, certainly in experience and creativity.

I'm disappointed that Meireles handed in the transfer request. I can't see him playing much more for them than us. But he has moved to a club managed by an old manager, and I can understand why he did it. But I don't like any player handing in a transfer request that late in a window, and feel like a club should reject a request like that.

However, FSG and Kenny seem to have agreed on a developing youth policy, and Meireles hasn't been first choice, so in a sense the owners and manager have made their bed and must lie in it. And given this window, I've no doubt that come January if it is obvious we need an new CM the funds will be there.

I'm disappointed, but I'll get over it.

by **damjan193** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:44 am

What the

, we

sold him?!?!? I can't believe this, what happened to squad depth?!? And not only that we sold him but we gave him to :censored:

Chelsea? What the :censored:

, are we Chelsea's feeder club now? You don't sell your best players to rivals FFS. How much did we even get for him? We could have atleast grab Sturidge. This is ridiculous, it's a very stupid move!!!

by **aCe'** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:45 am

Bad Bob wrote:One thing we haven't seen discussed much is the way Chelsea have done business with us the last two windows. Twice now they've been in for our player, been knocked back and then presto, the player puts in an 11th hour transfer request that puts the club under pressure. Of course, the first time we got them to cough up 50 million for a player who looks to be on the decline. This time out, the deal looks less favourable to us although time will tell whether it hurts us.

Of course, there's always the option to refuse to negotiate regardless of the transfer request. I gather some of you think we should have (the don't sell to rivals axiom). Is that good business or good squad management though? If the want-away ends up staying does it hurt squad morale? And do we sink our chances of getting this kind of money for him in the next window, after he's done the proverbially rotting in the reserves? Questions, questions...

I read that the deal was done and dusted by 9p.m and that the only reason the transfer request was put in was that the club wouldnt have to pay him the bonuses and such. Regardless, it was obvious imo that Kenny didnt have Meireles in his plans and while the whole transfer request thing hurts quite a bit, I cant really blame the guy for wanting a move to a better side where hed have better chances of starting. If I was a player I'd do the same thing as would any other person. Add to that the generally accepted speculation of him earning 30k only and the club refusing to revise his contract and its a recipe for disaster. I cant believe for one minute that we couldnt have kept him here if we had wanted him. Imo, its obvious we were wanting to sell, and eventually we did.

by **laza** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:45 am

Bad Bob wrote: I rated Merieles as a valued member of the squad but am not convinced he would have played all that much once Gerrard returns (I assume there's some hope of that given our willingness to dispense with a few CMs).

The value I saw in him last year Bob was when Stevie was out injured, which is when he came into his own for me.
How many games this year will Stevie miss, only gods know.

As for the transfer request, well was there all this summer speculation we were trying to offload him.
Loyalty is a two way street, just look at Alonso situation.

The thing that sticks most for me, is selling to Chelsea. I know things have changed but in old days you would have let a player rot on bench then sell him to one of your main rivals

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