Jimmy_D

'Perhaps he's ok under a different manager' is what stung us with Osvaldo. We already have VvD who we know is ok off the pitch. And about twice as good on it. I'd rather take the risk of VvD playing ok like Wanyama and Schneiderlin did while we use our scouts to find a better replacement than Sakho.

Considering it's his off field attitude that's stopping Liverpool from using him, I'd say it has some bearing.

Part of what we look at when signing a player is his character, and the odd times we've taken a risk and gone against that (Osvaldo in particular) it's not worked out too well. From the little I've heard he has a pretty horrendous attitude off the pitch.

The club still see it as a point of principle. In effect, VvD is unsettled purely because of an illegal tapping up by Liverpool. If he were to put in a transfer request, it does nothing to change that, and accepting it would just in effect allow the tapping up to have the desired effect for Liverpool, so he'd just be throwing away his loyalty bonus for nothing. A strike might do it, but it'd still be unlikely to get him to Liverpool, I don't think he's that sort of character, and it's not like he suddenly hates Saints all of a sudden to do that.

There's absolutely nothing stopping VvD finding work elsewhere if he doesn't want to play for us. We don't need to give up the registratation that would let him play for someone else though. Being a footballer isn't the only job on the planet, funnily enough.

Sounds like he's finally starting to accept VvD won't be moving to me.

That's something that will be verifiable and it's been noted that you've claimed that.

Oh jeez. Have to admit seeing the title of the Ugly Inside blog post pop up just now on Twitter... They got me. 'Tis not too often I'm fooled by something like that, but they got me. Utter bellends

Dunno, doesn't sound like something Liverpool would do...

Wouldn't put it past the media team to have been trolling the fans, ours AND Liverpool's, with that first video that didn't have him in.

*should have

Also it's an article from the Mirror with no quotes No one joins Liverpool with an expectation of regular Champions League football these days.

Yeah he did about three hours ago...

'Rich' is a relative term in football these days. As I've said before, even the top end £70M probably wouldn't leave us with one of the world's top CBs on a five year contract, even if we were prepared to spend the whole lot to try and do that. It's a different situation to most of the other times when we've already had replacements lined up with at least the potential to be as good or better than what we're letting go.

'Rich' is a relative term in football these days. As I've said before, even the top end £70M probably wouldn't leave us with one of the world's top CBs on a five year contract, even if we were prepared to spend the whole lot to try and do that. It's a different situation to most of the other times when we've already had replacements lined up with at least the potential to be as good or better than what we're letting go.

He's earned that with his form on loan. Be interesting to see if he can carry that through into form for us now.

Great news! Last season was awesome for him, and his breakthrough was one of the real highlights. We might have a real gem of a player here.

Obviously a done deal.

Nah, most of their ****wit fans seem to think 'not enough evidence to charge them with tapping up' means 'had permission to talk to VvD' so they'll be buying him for about £50M now because we won't want a player that's unsettled.

Considering the source, I very very highly doubt it was either written by, or aimed at, Liverpool fans. In any case, very good news that he's on a five year deal now. Can only see him getting better and better.

Another benefit of holding off on selling VvD to Liverpool is that they really really need him. I'm struggling to think of a single alternative they could go for. There's every chance that without him, they won't have Champion's League football to offer after next season and they'll find it even more difficult to get him.

I don't know off hand what Kreuger said, but my words have been the same for a while... https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?50943-Lovren-joins-Liverpool-Official&p=1992546#post1992546 https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?57504-Virgil-Transfer-Rumours-Summer-17&p=2424095#post2424095

I can actually see players being reluctant to move to Spain, at least for a while, until the tax situation there settles down.

All the way along since Liebherr took over, despite having the appearance of a selling club, when we've sold, it's been because we thought we could do better with the money rather than keeping the player to make us better on the pitch. There's been a few reasons that have weighed it in favour of selling more often than not, usually down to not having long left on a contract or the player kicking up one heck of a stink, along with a decent amount of money being offered. There have been a few times when keeping the player made sense for us. Wanyama and Schneiderlin being the obvious examples. More often than not we've been right, our squad has been steadily getting stronger. Looks like we're finally seeing a summer where it makes more sense to keep all of our best players than sell.