Another massive transfer window. Deadline deals, transfer requests and another Red wanting to join Chelsea. Fernando Torres part 2? Well, not exactly. Not as far as I am concerned.
January was a different story. We were coming out of the dark times, not out of them yet. We needed support from the players to pull us out of there. We needed the stars, who we idolized, to stick with us, support us. Not turn their backs on us. We wanted them to believe in the project. But someone got cold feet. He was worried about his age and he wanted to play 6 or 8 mid-week games in a year more. So be it. We know how well that turned out.
Raul is different case. He wasn’t an assured starter after our summer signings. Our squad is at it’s strongest in quite sometime now. He was never assured of his preferred CAM role and now with Bellamy and Henderson coming in, and Kuyt still giving Energizer bunnies the complex, Raul’s stay would have been mostly on the bench if not in the stands. Raul is another 29-30 year old who, may be, desires to play a few Champions League games. He wasn’t getting them here this year. Next year, chances for him to make the squad would be slimmer than they would have been this year (he would have been older and other who would have started before him most of the games and would have helped us qualify would have confirmed their position in the pecking order). Although he did quite a lot for us last year, but this season the above scenario looks similar to that of Joe Cole’s. Well, in that case, we should have sold Raul to a club similar to Lille, read: smaller? But, haven’t we? If a player, in search of first team football, has to go to another club, what would it say about the other club?
If we were to finish below Chelsea this year, I would be very very disappointed!
Raul, your pinger against Wolves was one of the better memories of last year. You were with us when we were having the worst of our times and one of those who stood out. Thank you and farewell!
I dont agree with you completely.
I dont have anything against Raul for handing in a transfer request tbh,i just find it VERY annoying about the timing of the transfer request..Atleast give the club a couple of days to fully utilize the funds theyve received for you!
Torres did it in Jan,Meireles did it again last night.
The least you could do for the club that made you into what you are today is give them ample time to sort out the situation and find a suitable replacement.
Thats my only problem with Raul. & i think im pretty justified.
take it this way, he was screwed because he didn’t get the pay rise we promised him. he got pissed and screwed us back. I guess thats fair.
We said mate! just a shame to lose a quality player.
U
Torres went with hours to spare. Hr left little to no time to find a replacement.
Torres went with hours to spare. He left little to no time to find a replacement.
Yes but to replace a star striker is even harder to replace a guy who’s usually coming off the bench.
I’m happy with raul did for us last year but I can’t say I’m to upset he’s left! He’s another on high wages, who isn’t gonna get many game. Saying your upset about the timing of the request is a bit silly, that transfer was agreed hours before! When a player is sold without wanting to go the club have to give them a sweetner so to speak to leave, when they request to go the club give them nothing! So KD and DC have said you can go – but you gotta ask to go!
I don’t think we ran out of time for anything, that Is to say we needed to get money before we spent. Not the case, the Americans have plenty in reserves so we are fine. They had targets they took them. I am happy he has been found out sooner rather than later. I admire maxi too for saying earlier in the summer he was happy to stay and fight for his place. True LFC attitude!
Raul ain’t on high wages he was getting paid 30,000 a week yeah real high wages jovanovic was paid 4 times that I respect rauls move a player of his quality deserves CL and higher wages
good
We’d already signed replacements in Adam, Hendo, Downing…not that I’m happy with Raul leaving the club. He will only get to play every 3rd game for the plastics, mind!
I think that raul went because he was underpaid and not to search first team football. He reduce his wage to come to lfc and was promised a improved contract which never happened how would u feel if a player like joe cole who wasnt playing and was shit earns more than 3 times what u earn i cant blame him good luck to u raul
Not bitter at all that Raul left although he left it too late. With the quality in depth we possess now, we are in a better position than we were last season. Besides, before him, we had Stevie G and I would gladly take my chances with Captain Fantastic. I wish him all the best in his career.
I would have respected him for moving on – due to not being a guaranteed starter – if he had been man enough to put his request in earlier. But to put in a tranfer request half an hour before the window closes is cowardly and gives us no time to spend the money on the squad. I always liked Raul – he’s exciting and can create chances out of nothing but some fans questioned his lack of bottle and I think he has proved them right.
Not Prepared to fight for his place in the team.money grabber.good riddance
Don’t forget the previous owners and championship manager Purslow promised him a pay rise to the level of Joe Cole. That’s probably why he came here from a league winning team to a ‘sinking ship’ like Liverpool last season. New owners came in, sacked Purlow and Meireles never got the pay rise. If I was him, I’d be pissed as my boss screwed me big time with my pay. It’s not 1000 a month it’s like 30-40k a week which is close to 1.5 mil loss of income. So going to Chelsea with still loads of midfields but loads of money ain’t too shabby yeah?
It may have been a sinking ship but the name still carried a lot of weight. Pay wise he just wanted what he percieved he was worth in the current market.
What you must know about Meireles is that Chelsea didn’t want him. They only got him as another option in midfield.
With Essien injured and Lampard old they needed someone else but their first choice was Modric so Raul goes there to a dissapointment
of many fans.
Also, he wasn’t first team player in KD plans. So he had a chance to leave to a team with better players, CL football and real shot at the title. Being bit-part there is better than bit part with LFC.
If he handed in transfer request club didn’t have to sell. They knew it’s too late to get anyone but the truth is they would sell to Juventus or Inter if a half decent bid would ever come from an Italian side.
I say Comoli and KD, use this money to get Adam Johnson in January and no one will think of Meireles again!
I think you’ve summed it up perfectly, mate.
Meireles is a good footballer but he has a habit of picking up niggling injuries (he’s injured now), and wimping out of tackles. It will be interesting to see if he gets more game time for Chelsea than he would have at Liverpool – his natural position is currently occupied by Fat Frank.
Can’t say I’m sorry to see him go. And although he handed in his request half an hour before the window shut I’m sure the club knew well before then that he was leaving.
Indeed the last minute transfer request was probably just a PR thing he was asked to do by the club to appease fans, in return for extra signing on dosh!
He’d rather be a bench warmer at Chelsea than fight for a place on the reds bench.
A small note: whoever thinks that Raul handed it the transfer request when the club announced he did is being pretty ignorant. I mean, how can you hand a request at 10:30 and sign before 11PM? Even the helicopter ride would have taken longer guys! The website didn’t say that he has ‘just’ handed in the request.
I agree money would have been a problem. But LFC wouldn’t pay £90,000 a week to a squad player. May be they sought soft retrenchment. I think if he would have been OK with 40 or 50k, LFC wouldn’t mind his quality on the bench.
Money or gametime, it’s good for him. As I said, if Chelsea can promise him gametime and we cannot, what does that say about Chelsea as a football club?
hafta agree mate,chelsea whilst having the same points as we do currently,we must remember who they picked those up from and truth be told,they were far from convincing doing it too,i know its early days yet,but im almost certain we have the edge on the aging chelsea team this season round!!!raul was good on his day,stand out point in his LFC career, the volley against Wolves which you touched on,apart from that,not much to get too excited about,lastly good luck raul but make no mistake,u will NOT be missed…..theres just too many more than decent players in the squad now….YNWA
quick pondering point,may just be,chelsea thought if they take the 2 players that sunk them last season (torres Anfield miereles at the bridge) they may just stand a chance this term,hahahahahaa
like Kenny said we only want players here, who want to be here, I agree, good bye and good luck Raul, I remember him for chelsea and wolves goals but also for backing out of a challenge that angered Stevie which lead to his red card against man’ure
We can try to justify it any way we want, losing Meireles was a mistake the club will pay for this season and beyond. After years of hurting for depth they finally get some, then turn around and ship off Meireles and Aquilani. Not keeping one of them (most would prefer Raul) was a mistake, plain and simple.
was it true when LFC agreed to let Raul go they made a last ditch attempt for Adam Johnson?? that’s what i heard n read but doesn’t matter now anyway, onwards n upwards get behind your team that includes Carroll love him or hate him he needs our support as do the rest……YNWA
I completely agree with everything you’ve written. If I were Raul and wouldn’t get the right amount of cash I’d be pissed, too. I mean of course it’s not only about the money but also the team you’re playing for. Sucks it had to be Chelsea and this timing but all in all I understand him.
Plus, he gave his everything even as a sub. Not like a certain Spaniard with whom he can link up now.
Alot of people on here seem2kno alot about Meireles’s contract he signed with us??? How? We don’t kno the ins and outs but what I do kno is he left porto and an average league to join Liverpool football club hr should have felt priviledged to wear the shirt!! He was part of the sinking ship! His contribution before the 5 goals in a row that everyone remembers was pretty average to say the least! He seemed to spend more time on the floor getting treatment or s##ting out of tackles – 1 at castle greyskull lead to gerrard getting sent off! He was a coward on the pitch and has now shown he lacks the fight off it! He was obviously unhappy at Arsenal with his reaction after we scored but he hardly played any of pre-season so deserved to be on the bench. In my opinion the players selected ahead of him are far superior anyway and we still hav gerrard to come back! The likes of spearing deserved more of a chance ahead of him through commitment&attitude alone I would also have kept cole and aqualani ahead of him! There’s nothing worse than a coward on the pitch playing for your team good riddance just a shame he left it so late! That probably had something to do with chelsea eventually having to give up on modric which left them liitle time to find a second choice option!! Obviously Meireles was aware of the situation and was only 2 happy to be that 2nd choice option! Glad he’s gone hope he has the same success as the other fraud who left us high and dry and is left ruing the biggest mistake of his career when king Kenny takes us back to the pinnacle of English football!!!
I’m more dissapointed that we sold YET another player to Chelsea who are one of our main rivals for the title. So he handed a transfer request in on the last day of the window, Liverpool should of shown a bit of authority and made him play reserve football until the next window and so what if the price we got for him might of been a bit lower in January than this window, it would send out a clear message to other players who use the last day of a transfer window to hand in a request, that this is an unacceptable approach. So we might of got 12-15 mill, we have still lost a good squad player through Chelsea’s borderline tapping up tactics. It seems to me clubs these days don’t want to upset these greedy money grabbing so called professionals, professionals who don’t know how to honour a contract that pays them many thousands of pounds each week. Mark my words, Suarez will be their next target and is it going to a repeat of the Torres situation? One maybe two windows down the line? It certainly would not suprise me.
” it would send out a clear message to other players who use the last day of a transfer window to hand in a request” – like Andy Carroll?
C’mon let’s get real, it suited the club to sell him, reports earlier in the week stated Chelski’s first bid of £7m plus Benayoun was rejected as the club wanted it all in cash which Chelski came back and did.
The transfer request* was needed by LFC to not lose the wages they would have had to pay to wind up Raul’s contract and this reduce the fee (as they had to do with N’gog which was £4m minus settling up his remaining club contract).
* and he did not put it in at 10.30pm, the club went public that he had put a request in at 10.30pm…
chelsea a better team hahaha they wish chelsea will never be in liverpools league and ps i would rather suarez gerrad agger lucas reina downing kelly carragher to lampard torres alex cech mikel bosingwa kalou so shut the fuck up you thick twat
who is the ‘you thick twat’ here?
Fare well Raul Mereiles and thank you for your contribution at our most difficult time. You will understand if we dont wish you success being as you are on enemy ground
I reckon impose a hefty fine payable by the player like 2m if he hands in a TR with less than 10 days till the deadline. Ill bet they would think twice about doing it.
I don’t agree. If he wants to play CL, I understand. If he had any honor he’d go to Bundesliga, serie A or primera division. Joining our rivals is respectless!
i agree that you don’t agree
Guys this was a deal done before the transfer request. The handing in of the request isn’t the same as Torres. It’s more akin to Carroll. He had to hand it in otherwise he would have been entitled to a contractual pay off.
So the request was almost the last piece in a jigsaw puzzle. No more, no less
I feel it,wish the player the best of luck.His goals are one of those elements which improved Hdgson’s era,but like one may say;”we part to meet and meet to part”,the player helped us in difficult times and like you say,it would be paining to see him on the bench after such a help to our team.If he goes to chelsea for first team chances,then,its good for his owns sake and we can wish him the best of times there.The thing is,we now have players who would improve us more or add to what he gave us.He should just treat his depature as just FOOTBALL LIFE.All the best Raul,You will forever be remembered,am saying this from my heart and 100% honest about it…CHEERS!!!!!!!!!
Let him go,we are now a better team,dont even panic about his move.we got captain fanstastic back in a couple of weeks,every gate wil be unlock.ynwa
Disappointed that Raul left,YES
but not surprised,especially seeing CFC involved and interested,
they are famous for tapping up players before they approach the club
see,torres,mikel(with MU)cole(arsenal) to name a few
and don’t think that raul handed his request just an hour before deadline, the request and the deal was done and dusted well before, He wanted to leave,yes and KK andDC said OK but you have request it officialy and written, so he (raul )wants to break the contract and not the club
Nothing against raul, we could have asked for more seeing themChavs offering 40M for modric
YNWA
joining the plastics was a little harsh, but otherwise i think it was a good piece of business for everyone involved. also, with first refusal of eden hazard via the joe cole deal, we could well be looking at the hazard fund being established. i would take him over raul 8 days a week. i can wait till january.
Torres left and belittled Liverpool, saying he “wanted to win trophies” – which means that if he was still here, he had no chance of doing so. Raul left (so far) silently, and to link up with two international team mates and a former manager. Honestly, he cannot be blamed. I am disappointed that he left, not because *HE LEFT*, but because the club let him leave. He would be a starter on my book, for sure, but Kenny knows better.
YNWA