With our first game of pre-season due next week – the main talk amongst LFC fans is the potential departure of fan’s favourite Raul Meireles .
Websites have been buzzing with rumours that Raul has been left behind whilst the rest of the squad go on tour to the Far East
Meireles arrived from Porto for a fee in the region of £11m and went onto make 33 league appearances for the club, pitching in with 5 goals and 7 assists in the process – a fine debut season return by anyone’s standards.
When King Kenny made his dramatic return to LFC we saw an upturn in both LFC’s and Meireles’s fortunes with him thriving on being played in a more natural position and enjoying the new management’s passing style of play.
Meireles capped off the season by receiving the PFA Fans Player of the Year award which surprised many LFC fans me included but he showed us all in glimpses that he is an excellent classy intelligent player.
Whilst his debut season in England could be said to be successful, I can understand why selling him for a profit is a viable option.
If we put together an analysis of his performances last season we can see major peaks and troughs in his form – he started off the season under Roy Hodgson in poor form like the rest of the side – this I believe was mainly through being played in an unfamiliar role on the right by Mr Hodgson.
The Hodgson era was not working for either players or management so John W Henry decided to take the calculated gamble and give King Kenny the manager’s role until the end of the season.
That gamble quickly turned into a major upturn in our play and also resulted in a resurrection in Meireles form
Under Dalglish, Meireles performances included a run of 5 goals in 6 games including a winner against Chelsea and a fantastic dipping volley against Wolves, the problem after that fantastic run of form is that once we purchased Suarez it coincided with another dip in form towards the tail end of the campaign where Meireles didn’t score another goal.
The player’s quality is not in question – the problem we have is finding a positive role in the starting eleven which can maintain the player’s happiness – without the extra games of Europe this season we are going to have to have a core number of players who will play in the majority of the games and others who will not play hardly at all.
With Meireles now reportedly being made available for transfer this summer – the reason behind this rumour has now come to light. When Meireles signed for us, he was so willing and determined to prove himself in England that he signed a supposedly low deal with a promise from us to review the contract at the end of the season and offer him better terms if he was to succeed – To be fair to Meireles he has kept to his promise but FSG now seem to reneged on their end of the promised deal.
The reason for FSG changing their thoughts on the deal has been because the emphasis has now been changed and the focus is now on youth and young, hungry British players which now leaves Meireles at a crossroads.
At 28 years of age, the position Meireles finds himself in is at odds with the new wage structure brought by John W Henry, thus his future now looks uncertain and Liverpool are open to offers – they’ll surely make a profit on Hodgson’s only sound purchase and he won’t be short of takers.
Meireles may also feel that the challenge of competing in the Champions League is hard to ignore. Also with John W Henry now trying to reduce the average age of players in the squad by stating “We are not going to be successful by merely filling short term needs at LFC," Meireles could feel his position at Liverpool is untenable.
Raul Meireles has a lot to contemplate before we know whether he will commit to the LFC cause or whether we want to keep him at all.
Websites have been buzzing with rumours that Raul has been left behind whilst the rest of the squad go on tour to the Far East
Meireles arrived from Porto for a fee in the region of £11m and went onto make 33 league appearances for the club, pitching in with 5 goals and 7 assists in the process – a fine debut season return by anyone’s standards.
When King Kenny made his dramatic return to LFC we saw an upturn in both LFC’s and Meireles’s fortunes with him thriving on being played in a more natural position and enjoying the new management’s passing style of play.
Meireles capped off the season by receiving the PFA Fans Player of the Year award which surprised many LFC fans me included but he showed us all in glimpses that he is an excellent classy intelligent player.
Whilst his debut season in England could be said to be successful, I can understand why selling him for a profit is a viable option.
If we put together an analysis of his performances last season we can see major peaks and troughs in his form – he started off the season under Roy Hodgson in poor form like the rest of the side – this I believe was mainly through being played in an unfamiliar role on the right by Mr Hodgson.
The Hodgson era was not working for either players or management so John W Henry decided to take the calculated gamble and give King Kenny the manager’s role until the end of the season.
That gamble quickly turned into a major upturn in our play and also resulted in a resurrection in Meireles form
Under Dalglish, Meireles performances included a run of 5 goals in 6 games including a winner against Chelsea and a fantastic dipping volley against Wolves, the problem after that fantastic run of form is that once we purchased Suarez it coincided with another dip in form towards the tail end of the campaign where Meireles didn’t score another goal.
The player’s quality is not in question – the problem we have is finding a positive role in the starting eleven which can maintain the player’s happiness – without the extra games of Europe this season we are going to have to have a core number of players who will play in the majority of the games and others who will not play hardly at all.
With Meireles now reportedly being made available for transfer this summer – the reason behind this rumour has now come to light. When Meireles signed for us, he was so willing and determined to prove himself in England that he signed a supposedly low deal with a promise from us to review the contract at the end of the season and offer him better terms if he was to succeed – To be fair to Meireles he has kept to his promise but FSG now seem to reneged on their end of the promised deal.
The reason for FSG changing their thoughts on the deal has been because the emphasis has now been changed and the focus is now on youth and young, hungry British players which now leaves Meireles at a crossroads.
At 28 years of age, the position Meireles finds himself in is at odds with the new wage structure brought by John W Henry, thus his future now looks uncertain and Liverpool are open to offers – they’ll surely make a profit on Hodgson’s only sound purchase and he won’t be short of takers.
Meireles may also feel that the challenge of competing in the Champions League is hard to ignore. Also with John W Henry now trying to reduce the average age of players in the squad by stating “We are not going to be successful by merely filling short term needs at LFC," Meireles could feel his position at Liverpool is untenable.
Raul Meireles has a lot to contemplate before we know whether he will commit to the LFC cause or whether we want to keep him at all.
