Chelsea midfielder Raul Meireles spoke out about his move from Liverpool at the weekend:
“People think I am a Judas and that it was because of the money. It was not because of that. I will explain it later. I am not the only one to blame for my exit from Liverpool. It all happened very fast. I will never stop loving the club [Liverpool] and I have great friends there. The most important thing is to give my all every time and try to help Chelsea win titles. These are things that happen in football. I can only say good things about Liverpool. It was a fantastic year.”
There had been speculation all summer about the Portuguese midfielder departing the club, and his transfer request and subsequent transfer to Chelsea left a bitter taste in the mouth, not because he left for Chelsea, but because of the way he departed the club. In a similar vein to Fernando Torres, he left under a shroud of controversy because he handed in a transfer request at the last minute, and then left on the final day so there was little chance of Liverpool replacing him.
As Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard have said, there is no point keeping players at the club if they don’t want to be here, and sure enough, like Fernando Torres, the club let the player go onto pastures new.
Still there is still the question remaining as to why he wanted to leave in the first place. Meireles goes out of his way to say in his comments above that it wasn’t about the money. The obvious explanation would be that he felt he wouldn’t get enough game time under Kenny Dalglish this season, and so was looking to leave. Steven Gerrard suggested this to the Liverpool Echo:
“I don’t think Raul had been too happy because he wanted more game time, but the players who have been playing before him have been doing really well. He put in a transfer request and I’m sure Kenny and Damien (Comolli) thought if he’s going to be unhappy and doesn’t want to be here then it was better to move him on. It was probably the right decision and we got good money back for him.”
One important fact which argues against this though is that Meireles was hampered by injuries during pre-season and was not fully fit at the start of the campaign so couldn’t be expected to feature prominently against either Sunderland or Arsenal. It was too early for Meireles to know for sure he wasn’t a first team regular, and in any case, moving to Chelsea with the likes of Juan Mata, Frank Lampard, Ramires, John Obi Mikel all vying for starting places, he may find himself invariably on the bench anyway.
Despite Meireles denying it was about money, there has been a consistent rumour all summer that the 28 year old was unhappy about not being given a bumper pay deal, promised by the previous owners.
It was said that Meireles signed from Porto last summer on the condition that he would have an improved deal if he did well during his first season at the club. After becoming the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year, the Portuguese midfielder is said to have felt entitled to an improved contract, but the new owners, who were not tied to such a promise and were in the process of cutting the wage deal, refused to give Meireles a new deal. This is assumed to be why the 28 year old was unsettled at the club because he felt the Reds had broken an agreement.
Meireles does say he wasn’t “the only one to blame” for his exit from Liverpool, perhaps saying he didn’t see eye to eye with some expects of the management or the owners, and that could easily be over the contract issue which was rumoured. What do you think?
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no way meireles left for playing time. he wasn’t fully fit in training, which is why he was left out in the first couple games. no doubt in my mind he would have pushed out adam over the course of the season.
he left because liverpool didn’t want to offer him a 4 year contract on 70k/week. we have had bad experiences with older players sitting on nice contracts even when they are no longer 1st teamers, FSG want to give the 8m to someone younger.
If it’s all about money why did he join liverpool for 30.000p a week in the first place and also did you ever hear he moan about his salary???.We still doesn’t have a clue but meireles say the matter is still fresh and he’ll speak out when things cool off beside lverpool is doing things close door so till then…be patient.
It’s obvious, he left to join a better club.
Weren’t the initial reports streaming in through the summer of him being declared surplus to requirements by Kenny Dalglish?
There was heightened debate over whether he is good enough in the long run, apparently because of him nearing 30 and that sort of thing.
I don’t think a player of Meireles’ committment would’ve left just for the lack of a lucrative contract.
He was being touted for sale on one hand which made him feel unwanted. secondly, he saw Andres Villas-Boas in charge at Chelsea, who he’s worked with before and knows what he’s all about.
I think it’s a simple case of him taking matters in to his own hands to end the uncertainity of what Kenny Dalglish thought of him. A player of his class and the performances he had put in so far, didn’t merit a questioning of his worth to the club and place in the side in the first place. New players like Adam and Henderson coming should have been vying for their places against Meireles’ established role in the side, more importantly his worth to KD. It ended up being the other way around.
Spot on… Agree with you 100%
Couldn’t agree more!
I honestly don’t think anybody is at fault here.. If indeed true, I’d hope for a wage increase too, after a pretty good season. In the world of football I don’t think he was on that much of a wage, but that “bumper deal” was obviously struck with “them C***s”.
I also think FSG were fully within their rights to value him differently and its obvious the deal wouldn’t tie in with our new approach so to me, it made sense for him to go. IMO, there’s no bad guy or Judas, Its just a logical move.. I dont think its he’s bench bound at Chelski either.. I’m sure that AVB bloke’s former fan of his?
Did anyone else notice his celebration when he teed up Suarez to score in the Arsenal game to make it 2-0 at the emirates? He started swearing at lucas, maybe something went on behind the scenes that we dont know about.
am not sure wot exactly happened there as av not been able to watch the replay, but I heard from a ‘quite’ reliable source dat he was pointing at Kenny. Suarez was said to have lowered his hand after seeing wot he was doing.
I saw this at the time and thought the swearing and gestures were towards a fan or something, but for Suarez to lower his hand quickly may suggest some truth to the rumour from that “quiet reliable source”.. I’m not normally one for here-say but there’s deffo something in this..
I still don’t think anyone one involved is a bad guy tho..
He’s pretty vague about his reasoning but I don’t as Tiger Ballz says above, there’s no real bad guy here.
I also don’t think he’s to sit around on the bench either. What should happen is that he plays in the first team in place of Lampard and to provide extra steel in order to bring through Josh.
However, I fear he’ll be used in a similar role that Ballack used to play, one in which he’ll mask Lamps’ deficiencies.
*but I don’t think, as…
**still doesn’t make sense. Forget it, my grammar is fecked, need sleep lol
As for those segments in the press sayin we got 12m for him, I seriously doubt it. Am not sure bout Kenny but DC is a good business man. I dont see y we would sell a ‘good’ player for that price knowing fully well that it would decrease our numbers in quality and also knowing we wont be able to get a replacement at that time.
I remember Gerrard stating recently that ‘we got good money for him’.
Therefore, I am 100% sure that Meireles was sold for ‘at least’ £16m possibly around (or above) 20. Because of Chelsea’s desperation after losing out on Modric, I’ld say we were in a very good bargaining position, so I dont see why we’ld not stretch Chelsea’s resolve and hold out for a very good deal. The way I see it, dat’s gud business on our side. We can now get a younger, much fitter, and beta replacement in January coupled with a natural RW. YNWA
It is not fair to call him Judas, he only submitted his transfer request because we have been trying to get rid of him since the beginning of summer, and he was way down the pecking order in terms of a first team place. Plus more importantly, if he is Judas, then what does it make of Suarez, Carroll, Downing, Enrique, Adam, Henderson, and Coates. shouldn’t they be Judases as well for leaving their teams??????
We can’t just call players that leave Judases, and the players that arrive fantastic pieces of business.
I know it is very frustrating, to have good players leave, but that is football now a days, you win some you lose some.
very tru mate
Maybe it wasn’t any of those reasons.
Who would rather play for Liverpool than Chelsea? You lot don’t have Champions League this year and haven’t even won a single premier league trophy. Don’t forget that you also bought at least 2 players who play his position.
Welcome to Stamford Bridge Raul!
KTBFFH
Obviously, he was hurting, with KD preferin Adam and(20yo)Henderson ahead of him, which in my honest opinion Meireles was right. KD had been trying to flog him off all summer, and that is the reason for the for the finger wagging towards KD. Meireles is a full international and, to prefer an unproven 20yo ahead of him, was quite wrong, but we all make mistakes at times, and KD boobed on this one!