IT’S replaced the cliched “come-and-get-me plea” — the Instagram like of a picture of the Liver Building. The tweet that has a picture of a man wearing a red hat. The Facebook post with a link to an image of some ace-looking new Adidas trabs. ‘Following’ Coutinho’s ma.
All this activity signposts to intent. The lad who gets his social media game pointing towards all things rouge is a lifelong Liverpool supporter and aching to pull on the LFC shirt. This now equals that.
In fact, all of these things are far better than the “come-and-get-me-plea”.
All these old school come hithers ever amounted to were coy confessions that said player might theoretically have to do some thinking if a big team came a knocking. Quotes offered in post-match sweat, reaffirming loyalty to existing employer whilst caveating that in life “ya never know”. That was as good as it got. Unless you were downright evil, like Paul Ince, in 1990, and posed in your wished-for team’s kit (Manchester United) while still taking your wages from your current club (West Ham). Shameless.
The temptation from the gallery is to scoff at all this. To shake the head at the suggestion that we view the vacuousness of social media as as some kind of evidence as to the likely outcome in a multi-million pound business deal.
In short, Alex Teixeira clicking on the image of a cartoon mini red heart is not bringing closer the likelihood of a deal worth (as a package) something in the order of £50m. Alex Teixeira’s appreciation of a post on Instagram of his head superimposed on to an LFC kit-wearing body does not signal the inevitability of him becoming a Liverpool player.
In Teixeira’s case spice had been added prior to his online flurry.
He had given a fairly extensive interview to a Brazilian paper in which he had clearly indicated his desire to move from Shakhtar Donetsk, and to do so before the January transfer window closes.
It is not unreasonable to infer then, that as a composite, the evidence points to a) the player fancying a move abroad b) fancying it happening very soon, and c) the lad being very OK with his new club being Liverpool FC.
Apart from the obvious then, is there a more direct purpose in this kind of activity?
Is Teixeira sending out a message to Shakhtar? Is he heading towards making his position there look a touch untenable?
He is currently more than signalling that his head and loyalties are elsewhere. If this was a Premier League player flirting with another team in this way, he would be out the door. Shirts would be getting burned on TV. A deal would get done. Compromise would be essential.
Of course, in the west, we suspect these Ukrainian types don’t roll this way. That they don’t have our disdain for such flagrant shows of disloyalty.
We can believe that should Teixeira’s move fail to materialise this January that his current club will effortlessly rehabilitate him. That the likes of Shakhtar and their billioniare owner feel no shame in forcing a “unhappy player” to stay put for a duration. That money talks, first, last and always.
Notwithstanding our prejudices and hypocrisies (Suarez and the Arsenal saga anyone?), what are the portents now for a deal getting across the line before January 31?
In any transfer it takes three to tango — player, buyer, seller. Two of the boxes look well ticked thus far. Even the third is half ticked. Shaktar look receptive to a sale.
The sticking point, as ever, is the price. The buying party are briefing that they’ve got one more bid in them above their current one of circa £25m. But hey, they won’t overpay. Won’t be taken for mugs. LFC will leave the table if necessary. We’re not desperate.
Shakhtar are sitting pretty and assuming a position that suggests they know they are in that box seat. They are telling people that they want a cool £50m. It’s a pay up or piss off kind of number. It looks at first sight, totally our of court. Liverpool won’t get near that. This deal can’t have many legs left. Can it?
Possibly not. Probably not, many with reasonable authority might say.
This stance though appears to ignore a key component in any significant transfer — the wage element. We seem to know that Teixiera’s people are happy with their man earning around £45k per week. It’s a number that probably more than doubles his pay in the Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWOPWuqBOMs
It is also small potatoes by today’s elite player level standards. If we’re talking north of £25m for a footballer these days then it follows that he’s decent and can expect to command a very special wage contract. A deal worth £5m to £6m would not be an excessive requirement.
Over the life of a five-year arrangement, that would amount to a c.£30m investment by a buying club.
Here, then, is the rub. If Teixeira’s wage demands are going to amount to a relatively modest c.£12m over the next five years, then he represents exceptional value for a prospective new employer. So much value then (that value being the gap between £30m and £12m) that the effective discount being offered on the wage package might be rationalised as offsetable against a seemingly inflated transfer fee.
We would all see paying £25m to Shakhtar and £100k a week to the player as a par investment for a player with Teixiera’s pedigree, right ? Yet many would balk at a £40m fee and most likely pay scant attention to the £12m player remuneration contract. Yet both packages amount to around the same £50m-ish cost. One looks right, and one looks wrong. Smoke and mirrors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqD5lvEbXco
Clubs are businesses that, though prone to folly, are not this stupid.
It is precisely because Teixeira’s pay demands are so modest (by mean comparable standards) that his owners feel justified in naming the eye-watering price that they have.
It is also why LFC may shock many by ultimately agreeing to a fee with a headline ceiling of around the £40m mark for a player without a full international cap.
Shakhtar may well have dealt a mortal blow to this transfer, but equally it should not come as a shock if Liverpool’s ability and willingness to meet them far more than halfway materialises and that this one does actually get over the line by the end of next week.
Watch the space. Like the likes. Pay the price.
Not sure about the wage thing. In order to get a work permit he’ll have to be in the top 25% of wager earners at the club. On 45k a week I doubt it if the likes of Mignolet are on 90k
Absolutely not true. That’s the criteria that scores highest in that category but top 75% would still score him points. Regardless of wages, he’d still gain enough points to get a permit. Interesting piece in the Echo last week on it.
Fee doesn’t really apply in this case,its about gaining some stability in the team and taking some of the pressure of Klopp.
The constant flow of games with minimal options to juggle mean the club and the “transfer committee” need to make sure this is a player who can settle quickly and get 10/12 goals between now and May. Those goals could mean a cupor a European place, sometimes you have to give an arm to get the neck.
If we pay the price for Texeira we are anything but mugs. In this day and age if we want to dine at this table we have to pay the price. City will pay £50m for Sterling (now a bench player). Chelsea will pay. PSG will pay. Manchester United will pay even more (Martial). The reality is if we are offering £45k pw then if Chelsea come along and offer £100 then we are out of the picture. He’ll be liking Oscar and Willian’s Instagram before you can say K-Swiss.
Ayre did the business with Firmino-he paid the right price-the right price happens to be what the seller is asking when a player is under contract and your club wants him. He swooped on down to Brazil and made the deal before the Metro even had a fake transfer rumour about it. Needs to do the same now with Alex Texeira or get off the pot-if you will-if the club wants this player in this window. Otherwise why bother. Not going to beat this oligarch at his game.
It’s looking suspiciously like yet another FSG PR exercise. Let’s hope not. Wish we could get back to the old days. No news until the deal is done and dusted.
FSG PR exercise? Fucking hell. So no negotiation then? just pay whatever a club asks for a player that 99.9999999% of the support have never heard of before last week. If FSG are reading quick give this cunt a job, he will get every deal over the line.
There’s a world of difference between realistic negotiation and fantasy. As I say, I hope I’m wrong, but they have previous.
Bollocks to all that. The real issue here is what will Gubbins give this feller out of 10?
Isn’t the reported fee more like €50m or roughly £38m? Not trying to be bellicose, just saying what I’ve read over the past couple of days. If true then surely we can get this deal done before deadline day. I mean we paid £35m for Carroll and about £32m for Benteke in recent seasons. If the way I’ve interpreted the news is correct (and it’s probably not knowing me) then we’re basically just moving a ‘summer signing’ forward into the current window. So from a transfer budget perspective are we not just using whatever budget has been set aside for January and supplementing it with summer funds? I have no idea how the financial side of all this works obviously, just thinking aloud. If he really has been identified as a key transfer target, and given our chronic need for a quality forward, should we not just be offering something like £30m and then looking to make up the rest in performance/appearance fees to keep Shaktar happy and push the deal through? Sure it’s a lot of money but even in our current situation it’s only a little bit more than we’ve paid for other top targets (assuming he was a key summer target in the first place). Anyway, I’ve never seen the guy play so I can’t comment on value for money etc… but if Klopp wants him then shouldn’t we be getting this deal done ASAP? No need for fannying around at a time like this.
Remember this headline: “Fabio Borini, Liverpool gear up for North American Tour as Clint Dempsey joins club”
Or the Tweet from Konoplyanka’s agent: “En route to Liverpool”
Or Arda Turan just saying outright: “I want to play in major leagues and my dream team is Liverpool.”
Or Willian: “I’m waiting for a new bid to arrive in the next days from a few clubs, like Liverpool. If it’s really Liverpool, then it is surely a great club. I’m hopeful and very calm, just waiting for the best.”
I could go on, but I’m overcome with a sudden need to curl up into a ball and rock back and forth for a while.
Maybe you could do what adults do Brendan and treat the bollocks that the MSM report in the way that any sane individual would treat your posts.
Remember them all, Walter.
Also remember that the common denominator in all of them was your main man, Brendan Rodgers.
Klopp is a different league.
Oh, I forgot that Rodgers was the one who refused to pay more than market “value” for Willian, who couldn’t get Dnipro’s president to sign the release clause, and who personally wrote article headlines for the FSG website. Don’t forget that Rodgers was the physician who administered the medical for Remy.
We all appreciate the blistering clarity you shed on the complexities of recruitment and contract negotiations at the club. Rodgers=Bad. Klopp=Good. Sorted.
And which, of course, explains our new teenage midfielder from Red Star Belgrade and Mignolet’s new 5-year contract.
Common denominator. Knows his maths, too.
Zzzzzz
Brendan roolz, ok
Don’t remember ever making such rose-colored comments. Rodgers had plenty of faults, but there were also lots of structural issues with the club that get swept under the rug because people want a simplistic version of history.
For anyone who claims that Rodgers was just a lucky so-and-so who happened to have Suarez should go back and read “Make Us Dream: The Story of Liverpool’s 2013/14 Season,” available for a reasonable price at your local sports literature outlet. Rodgers fostered a tremendous collective spirit, telepathic and fearlessly aggressive interplay, and offered shrewd, inventive tactics and in-game management. Couldn’t absorb Balotelli and the rest of the unpolished youth transfers, and his downfall was ultimately his own making. But that doesn’t make him rubbish, just unable to handle very trying circumstances.
But, more to the point, the FSG business model for LFC and the Boston Red Sox remains very much in place, as do every member of the cryptic transfer committee barring Rodgers. There has been no indication that a major shift in policy has occurred, as there is already growing evidence that it remains unchanged despite the new manager on the touchline.
Jeez, I remember being pathetically grateful that Joe Effing Cole condescended to sign for us. And Jovanovic. That’s how low we sank. Now we have a manager to be proud of, and to trust not to buy also-rans because they have ‘ball skills’, whatever that means.
FSG would destroy their investment if they allow the last three years to recur. Give the man the money – you’ll get it back!!!
I’m sorry, but isn’t it a bit wishful thinking to assume that Teixeira will selflessly refuse to seek any increase in his wages over the duration of his contract? Liverpool NEED Teixeira to provide something approaching a goal every two games. If he meets those requirements, there’s no way in hell he’ll take Joe Allen’s rumored wages.
The only way this proposal works is if you’re hoping one of Barcelona, Real, etc., offer more than you paid Shakhtar right around the same time the player starts making his – quite reasonable, really – demands. In other words, we’re either talking about a short-term fix… or a transfer every bit as expensive M’sieur Guttman is trying to convince me it really isn’t.
Was that last one a proper sentence? It’s so late. I’m so tired.
That’s my thinking too.
Thanks for the article Rob but like the fella says the logic falls down because, if he’s as successful as we want him to be, his wages will go over £100k in 18months or he’ll be off.
Yeah this is spot on (soz Rob). Figures are probably a bit out but I think Suarez was on around 30 initially then 100 after a renewal in 2012 then 200 in December 2013 when everyone knew it was unlikely he’d be a Liverpool player the season after with the best in the world level he was playing at. It’s basically all bollocks.
I remember Torres came in on a long contract and after a year of him being the best no. 9 in Europe Benitez rewarded him with a booster deal. We’ve just ‘rewarded’ a really terrible goalkeeper with a new 5 year contract on increased money ffs because apparently Klopp or no Klopp, we remain fucking idiots. If this Teixeira comes in and does the business he’ll get paid accordingly one way or another.
Shouldn’t the focus be on finding a good goalkeeper/centre-back/defensive midfielder. In attack I would say we need wingers rather than no10.
Yeah, a 26-year-old footballer is not coming to Liverpool on kid’s wages. We are offering him 70-80mil with escalators. I’m pretty sure he was making around £40-50mil at Shakhtar, if not more.
And 26years old–that doesn’t give him much room for adjusting to the PL. €50mil (those pesky euro signs!) is a lot to pay for a player who could turn out to be Roberto Soldado. I think Teixeira will be useful, but he will be staring at his 28th birthday by the time he really gets going.
Errr? I think we are desperate!
Of course we all want this to happen because we all love a big signing – at least we do at the moment it happens – but am I right to be dubious about a guy who’s 26, played almost all his career in Ukraine and remains uncapped?
And as others have pointed out, the 45k a week isn’t guaranteed for the length of his contract. If he does well he’ll have renegotiated to double that within a year.
I’ve been making poor use of my time recently so that naturally lead me to (no joke) work on a formula to predict FSGs max spend on a given player. I’ll try and be a simple as possible but I just thought it was interesting that my prediction was roughly £40m for a willian level player and £50m on a Goëtze type player.
So: here are the things that I wasn’t really able to figure out how to measure. The relative value of pitchers in baseball (a pitcher is considered way more important than any other player) vs positions on the futbol pitch. The existing (if any) bias towards spending money on one club vs the other but it is worth considering that FSG can’t really expand the red sox brand, LFC offers much more in terms of potential future earnings) so I generally decided to simply ignore that part.
Quick note on baseball signings: while they are almost entirely what would be referred to as “Bosman” signings, the money committed to a player’s salary is guaranteed, thus each year of salary is sort of equal to a transfer fee. However, baseball contracts are often back loaded and significantly longer than football contracts.
So here goes. I’ll be using the contract David price signed with the red Sox this sumer.
OK, so obviously one simple but annoying issue is exchange rates ($ to £, $ to €, € to £) “ok Google…”
So, basically we take the total value of the price deal ($217m) and divide it by the length in years (7) and get an average yearly salary of $31m $31m @ £1=$.7 (£22m/yr) so to be conservative round down to an even £20m/yr. That gives us a base that we will combine with the rumored length of contract (5yr). That should yield a max spend of £100m. Obviously this is way to high. But Mark Price is an elite pitcher, his value is hard to compare against an individual player. So again to be conservative let’s say that FSG would spend twice as much on an ace pitcher as on any one individual player and so we knock that down to £50m.
So this is where the wages come in and I’m so glad I read this article since I hadn’t thought about their effect on the equation. But it looks like Teixeira’s wages essentially subtract £10-15m from the overall transfer fee. So a £50m outlay becomes ~£40m. So I think that we will in the end, similar to with Benteke, get our man. We may simply have to meet their valuation but I think the numbers I’ve come up with show that it’s certainly feasible.
And breathe.
One thing that throws a monkey in my spanner is the fact that a given player can increase or decrease in value thus his age (26) could be a factor. Maybe we’re lowballing them because Hey why not? Every other big club does it, especially given his wage demands anything you can knock off is gravy, listen to me FSG nevermind the gravy, GIVE US THE TURKEY!
Sign him, or don’t sign him. As long as we don’t get gazumped by Chelsea again.