HBenn

In terms of competiotors it will be interesting to see how Chelsea act now. Saw something the other day in the Athletic saying Boehly sees the commercial side of PL clubs as being massively undeveloped. Also, his comments on FFP were very interesting. He clearly is big mates with FSG and looks like they will be another one banging the drum for FFP. Before I imagine Man U and us were banging the drum while Chelsea and City were doing everything to ignore them At least now, it is another powerful voice pushing for it.

How do you force a sale? He just says no. The club have no leverage now. Personally I can see the dilemma for the club. He wants a huge wage and whose to say he will be the same player he was the first part of the season in 1 or 2 years time. Fair enough if he only wants a 2 year deal but the club are probably looking at Hendo's fitness problems over the last 18 months and thinking what if?

On the basis that only City, Utd or Chelsea could afford his wages, how smart is it to make it known he would happily play for any of them? Not playing well is one thing, making it public that he would happily play for teams that we will compete in the league against is just dumb. How does it help him in any way?

If his agent thought it was a good idea to leak that he would go to another PL club then he is an idiot. So unless that is the club leaking a lie that isn't going to help him. If he starts like a house on fire then it probably won't be an issue. But if he starts like he played much of the last few months then he will get some stick at the ground.

Be interesting to see if it affects him. Didn't seem himself from Feb onwards. Whether that was purely down to African Nations loss or whether it was the contract talk we can't say. I personally think his immature agent isn't helping him one iota though.

I wonder if we will see the club move towards a policy of trying to keep players tied down until they are like 31 moving forwards. For instance, if they have a 26/27 year old offer them terms to take them to 31. Had they been able to have this discussion with Mo and Sadio 2 years ago (without the pandemic) and without a threat of an imminent deadline maybe the result would be very different.

Your a waste of time. I never even said it was about finding the replacement for one player and the fact that you keep making that same assertion is mind blowing. You also selectively pick points that suit your agenda while ignoring others that don't. I am not interested in discussing it any further with you because you don't present balanced arguments.

Completely with you on this. I struggle to see how anyone wants anything different. Take Thiago out of that midfield and we are nothing special. Particularly if Fabinho is out too. On the basis that Thiago misses loads of games over the course of a season and next season will probably miss even more as he gets older I struggle to see how it isn't a no brainer.

He has to agree to go. Not sure he will. His comment before the CL final about definetly being here next season and subsequent leak about him being prepared to go to another PL club sounded more like him trying to pressure us.

I think you are paranoid. I haven't said in any of these posts that I have a problem with FSG. I said he knows the budget and that there is a budget. Your argument about the money for Diaz and Nunez illustrates the point very nicely. We have finite resources and need to replace a number of areas not just Mane!! I also said there were potentially numerous factors that may have influenced him leaving, not just the requirement to replace a number of players. It often is a cumulation of factors that cause you to move. Sure he will have challenges at other clubs but maybe he will have a much bigger budget to address it with, different people to work with and a fresh environment to do it in. But this has gone on long enough, I think your arguments are a bit noddy so I think we will have to agree to disagree.

With all due respect, read the posts properly because I clearly wasn't saying he was running away from replacing one player. If you had you would see that the suggestion was that he could have looked at the situation, considered that we had a number of quality players in or close to their 30's and a number close to contract expiry. Better than anyone he would have an idea of budget available to replace. Or it was a high pressure job and he wanted a break. Either are a lot more plausible than the idea that FSG would let the guy that has made them a mint and they praise at every available opportunity go for the sake of a few quid. Their smart business men, not idiots.

The point is they don't pay people what they demand if they don't think they are worth it. We know of a pay structure for the players with big disparities. I am sure there are big disparities among normal employees as well. But unless Edwards was asking for in excess of Klopp, as arguably the other most important member of staff I doubt the real reason was down to money.

You could argue it's not their MO. They havent agreed terms with 3 players in their late 20's. Maybe they don't see that they represent the long term value to them to justify it now. Edwards could have been here for 10 more years. They may have felt that was worth it. For years we were told FSG were against signing OLDER players for big fees, big wages and long contracts.

I would be more shocked because they would pay it! He and Klopp combined have added billions to the share price and they are not prepared to give him a couple of million more a year to reflect that? Don't buy that personally.

Klopp reportedly didn't ask for one (I think he even made some comment about feeling guilty for being paid so much money when we were losing). I genuinely think that he isn't motivated by money to the same level as many of his peers. The club have a wage structure for the players and that makes real sense but even within that there is disparity and still harmony. For instance, doubt Matip gets paid what Van Dijk does. Imagine he doesn't have a huge problem with it cause Virgil is absolute class and a talisman. I am sure the u18 coach can knock on the door and ask for parity and be quickly told "make us x billion in the brand value and you can have your pay rise but until then..."

Yeah, I am sure he has but I personally don't think money would ever have been an obstacle to them renewing on Jurgen. He makes them too much money for them to be that stupid. Edwards I imagine the same. Longer term he would have held more value to them to Mo or Sadio.

The only issue with that is that Thiago and Gini are very similar age and a casual look at his appearances tell you he misses lots of games with injury. Plus they knew after his medical (so Thiago has said) that he is managing a long term injury. You don't typically replace a midfielder with someone the same age and expect that to be future proofing the squad. Sure he fulfils a purpose and is absolute class when he plays but he isn't a long term solution is he?

Tbh, your view about it being purely down to money just doesn't really add up. But, yeah, just use the lazy approach that it's "just a ploy to have a dig at FSG". Edwards has been FSG's man for years. Promoted him, praised him at every opportunity and made him central to all football decisions. He and Klopp have made them billions. At the first chance they have to renew Klopp's contract they renew heaven and earth to do it. Why wouldn't they do it to Edwards? It's nonsensical to say they wouldn't. You don't kill the golden goose. People on here are saying there are rumours that he was against Hendo, Milly being renewed and Jürgen stepped in. The same source that reported the difficulties about the Hendo talks (The Athletic), a week after its sorted, says there is an issue with his talks. The same source 6 months later when Klopp renews and again when Rohrbeck returns suggest there was friction between the pair. If that were true, I doubt he has walked due to one single contract renewal but maybe more a series of things that mean they are headed in different directions. I just don't see it is that far fetched to look at our squad, see how many players are heading into the final year of their contract and/or are already in their 30's and think maybe the guy who was responsible for planning ahead and avoiding that scenario maybe would have preferred to have done things differently. It could well be down to the realities of the financial impact of the pandemic that has prevented him doing it and he wants a fresh challenge.

Maybe he will end up somewhere like Madrid where he won't have the budget restraints or the difficulty attracting players over the likes of RM. Get handsomely rewarded, live in Madrid (give his family a new experience) and build a dream team

Frankly, its all moot now isn't it? Ward is in role, like you say seems very capable and perhaps more importantly Jürgen seems very happy while the window is in its infancy. Still a lot can happen. As I originally said, no one really knows what Edwards motives were and he has gone now so we get behind the guys who are here.

Yeah. Real convoluted for a guy that works 3 windows ahead and is aware of contract negotiations, contract lengths and budgets to look ahead 2 windows and see what could/would likely happen. I would say he wouldn't be the high calibre sports director he has been made out to be if he didn't do it.

Well that is why people leave roles right? Get frustrated with their bosses and look to do something different where circumstances are more favourable.

That is the thing with bright people, they foresee issues and start early before problems present themselves. As a bright guy he probably realised that you cannot do it all in one summer and if your not careful you end up with everyone realising you really need a midfielder and get charged through the nose. While also having to replace other areas of the team. For instance, I dunno, maybe like a star striker.

Probably a bit of both. The Athletic insinuated that Klopp will have a bigger say in stuff now and the relationship wasn't all that rosy. Edwards says he is leaving in December and Klopp renews in April. Are they linked? Probably not, but it has been inferred. Maybe Edwards got fed up of the budget. Remember how you couldn't move 2 or 3 years ago for an article about how the club plan 2-3 windows ahead? Now, you never hear about that. But we have a lot of players whose contract are expiring all at the same time and a number of players heading or already in their 30's. Does that sound like the approach of a man that plans 3 windows ahead? We are supposedly after a midfielder and Klopp has tasked Ward with finding one that meets that criteria for next summer. Surely for a club that far ahead we have at least 5 on a list already. Some of which were available last summer when Gini moved, some that are available now. Maybe it was forced on us by pandemic finances and Edwards is aware the money is not there, has foreseen the drop-off and got out while the going is good. Or maybe, it's a highly demanding job, it's all bollocks and he just fancied a break before starting again. Who knows, we probably won't know for another 10-15 years when he releases a book

With 2 years left on his deal I would imagine you would be looking at £50m for him as Leicester will demand top dollar for one of their better players. Think there is better value on the market.