Comolli says player contracts give him sleepless nights

[King Binny]

DAMIEN COMOLLI admits the stress of worrying about player contracts gives him sleepless nights.

The Carlos Tevez saga at Manchester City raised questions over how clubs should deal with temperamental millionaire superstars. And Liverpool’s director of football admits he is constantly concerned about the impact pay rises and transfers will have on other top names at Anfield.

He said: “With the way Manchester City are handling the Tevez case, if he is suspended for six weeks, that will send a message to the rest of the players and they will think about handling their situations differently.

“You have to be careful about giving long contracts to certain players. If they have difficult personalities they could be a bad influence if things go against you.

“A guy might have big talent, but might not want to work hard. I lose sleep about this on a regular basis.

“Should we open talks about a new contract with this player or that player? I know that you can lose the chemistry of the dressing room with even one bad decision.

“When you first identify the targets, you look at the character, of course. They have to have the right approach for Liverpool.

“If everyone in the group has the right attitude, then you need leaders. They can be technical, tactical, physical, intimidating or vocal. In the case of Steven Gerrard he is all of them except vocal, while Jamie Carragher is vocal.

“Stevie is a quiet leader but the players say he carries the team.”

 

[FoxForceFive]

Nice words, spot on about Stevie too, I can only remember once or twice that being mentioned in the past, & I'm fairly sure at one point Rafa used it as a direct criticism of him.

That said, I think he's become more of a leader on the pitch over the years, when he was first made captain I hated the decision. Incidents like the mascher sending off at OT where stevie was nowhere to be seen & Reina had to run the length of the pitch to attempt to calm him down summed it up for me.

 

[the count]

While reading the article the name Raul Meireles sprang to mind.
His was such an odd transfer, one pretty much everyone agrees wasn't a good one, and has weakened the squad.
Perhaps, and it is mere speculation, he wasn't a good influence in the dressing room.

If we as fans can see that his transfer weakened the team and squad, surely the likes of Kenny and Comoli can see it as well.
So there has to have been an alternate reason for Meireles's transfer to Chelsea.

 

[Judge Jules]

Are we perhaps in danger of overcomplicating the position though? Maybe it was a case of having to raise more cash before we could spend what Kenny wanted to spend and the decision was therefore taken - rightly or wrongly, I'm not defending it - that we'd ultimately gain more than we'd lose from selling Meireles.

 

[Rafiagra]

The Meireles sale seemed to be trying to recoup cash from a player deemed surplus to requirements. I not convinced we're any stronger without him though.

We were on fire at the end of last season but sought to tear that team apart. Although we're doing ok, we aren't playing nearly as well.

 

[Squiggles]

It's only Suarez we really have to be concerned about.

Barcelona aren't going to be whispering to Carroll, Henderson or Adam any time soon.

 

[the count]

Pretty much from the start of the summer transfer window the media were reporting that Meireles was one of the players that Liverpool were prepared to listen to offers for.
While most of us on here dismissed these reports out of hand. the reports were ultimately proved correct.
I don't believe that his sale was to fund other purchases as it was the last sale of the window and unless there was a moneyball motive for selling I think that rationale behind his transfer was not financial.

 

[Judge Jules]

I don't see the timing of the actual sale as significant TBH. Whether or not there were motives other than mere fundraising involved, deals can easily take that long before all the details are ironed out. That's not to say that there definitely weren't other factors at work, just that there needn't have been.