Nah... there isn't much of anything like this in baseball other than for very fringe players. Everything is guaranteed for the good ones. If anything, it's add ons to an already huge wage lol.

The Red Sox had massive wages and are still top 5 in MLB i believe. This ownership is a huge spender if it thinks it can win.

I get the feeling that they don't trust Liverpool's management much so far.

This is awful.

Hypothetical question:

Does the person who's judging their performance and therefore salary also sign a contract with the club, and someone from the club evaluates their performance on judging players performances? And then that person is judged on his performance? And so on and so forth

Would be a humorous situation

You can't really compare to US sports tbh. Everything to its core is structured differently there. Interestingly, footy in Europe is more capitalistic. Sports in the US is considered something that effect "the public good"... so they try to even out the playing field (some sports more than others) in order for the different communities to stay involved and interested. The media deals are also all pooled. As such, it's to the benefit of everyone to make the leagues competitive. For example, the NFL is an extremely even playing field. Every team can only spend up to the salary cap and they all benefit equally from the TV deal. That's why you have teams in Indianapolis, New Orleans, etc that are amongst the best. You also have a draft system to get players. Players are free agents only after they play a certain number of years in the leagues. Even then, the "home team" can always pay more than other teams as there are maximum allowable wages. For example, if Kobe Bryant were to leave the Lakers, he could only make 14 mil. The 29 mil he makes in LA is because he's been there so many years...

It's very equitable in the US.

Its a good idea if you have no intention on bringing in new players. But obviously liverpool does.. For me, if I was a player, that could be a huge deterrent. You have to make your club as attractive as possible to convince players to join you, and having that might be just enough for someone who comes down wanting to choose between liverpool and, I dunno, spurs or something to choose them over liverpool

It could also be counter productive, say if a big signing has a dip in form or gets injured and is out for about a week or two, when they return instead of being a team player they could start being selfish and taking more chances trying to boost their stats rather than help the team try to win because they are worrying about their wages and not victories.

Mountain out of a molehill, again. This is one comment that, by itself, means nothing other than the club follows the same practices as the vast majority of those in the game (basic wage structure with some performance-based bonuses). It's being blown out of proportion by fans on a witch-hunt and the much-discussed Sneijder rumours.

The offer for Sneijder (if it even exists) is, by all accounts, an isolated instance created by his very high demands and the uncertainty over whether he would perform. Hell, there are conflicting reports that suggest the offer has nothing to do with personal performances, but with team performance (initially a much lower than demanded salary, but one that will increase drastically if LFC make CL footy).

In the case of nearly all of our players, they're being paid competitive wages... £80k-£100k for Agger and Suarez and the like, with basic bonuses for clean sheets and goals and the like. For more risky buys (like, for instance, Sneijder) it would be (according to reports like the above) £66k plus performance based incentives...

Henderson, Allen, Gerrard, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel, Suarez, Sturridge Reina, Lucas, Enrique, Johnson, Sterling, Downing, Shelvey, Borini, etc are all on the same basic structure that nearly every other club use... competitive wages with incentive bonuses.


It is so much easier and more fun to flip out and go for hyperbole though...

Well when the OP says "Managing director Ian Ayre has revealed that new deals are being structured to offer lower basic salaries and more performance-related bonuses"...you can expect the sort of answers given here.

If competitive plus bonus was said, then I think different answers might of been given.

Except that before the current restructure we were offering 90k straight off the top to Joe Cole... now we're offering similar pay to Agger and others, plus basic performance based bonuses. And Ayre never actually states anything about lower base wages, except in passing reference to previous issues with players (see Cole, Joe).

These bonuses are coming from an implication made by journalists and furthered by assumptions by readers. And with each of these little jumps in logic and assumption, the apparent structure changes slightly and gets a bit more extreme. There is NOTHING in that interview nor in LFC's currently available wage information to suggest that the contracts offered by the club are largely based off of statistics or performance-bonuses... merely that bonuses are offered. And that's hardly rare in the sport.

The Franchise wrote:Well when the OP says "Managing director Ian Ayre has revealed that new deals are being structured to offer lower basic salaries and more performance-related bonuses"...you can expect the sort of answers given here.

If competitive plus bonus was said, then I think different answers might of been given.

Except that everyone assumed it meant Liverpool was going to try to sign top players with that structure, when the history of this being used in other sports (and sports, i dunno what you're talking about - it's VERY prevalent in baseball) says otherwise. people are making assumptions here and then calling liverpool stupid for doing something nobody's said they're doing.

maybe, just maybe, if it's sucha ridiculously bad idea that everyone in the forum can see, liverpool's business team can figure that out too, and maybe, just maybe, the fact that they didn't SAY they were diong that means that they're not? crazy thought.

Well I wasnt saying it was true, there isnt a quote there of him saying that as you said, but once that was put out there with the quotes, people went with the flow I guess because it wasnt confirmed or denied in the actual quotes.

Especially so as the thread turned into our opinion on such a scenario. At least thats how I took it.

Coming off a little defensive when nobody was really attacking. People just took the info and ran with it, especially as a Pool fan posted it too.

The Franchise wrote:Well I wasnt saying it was true, there isnt a quote there of him saying that as you said, but once that was put out there with the quotes, people went with the flow I guess because it wasnt confirmed or denied in the actual quotes.

Especially so as the thread turned into our opinion on such a scenario. At least thats how I took it.

Coming off a little defensive when nobody was really attacking. People just took the info and ran with it, especially as a Pool fan posted it too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not specifically talking to you - you're nowhere close to the only one putting out that hypothesis, and there are quite a few Pool fans in the mix.

I just don't understand... if there's a way it's already done in other sports and at times in this one, and it makes sense, why would people assume Liverpool are doing it a less intelligent way?

how is it prevalent in baseball? I don't see base salaries being lower at all in MLB. you've always had performance bonus uses.... but that is in addition to a massive base salary.

As i've mentioned, the only time this isn't true, it's for fringe players.

The only sport it's used in is the NFL and that's because the collective bargaining agreement makes all contracts non-guaranteed BY RULE, something that will never, ever happen in footy because sports is strucutred radically different in Europe.

There is no such thing as a collective bargaining agreement or owner-chosen overall commissioner in footy in Europe. So it 's impossible to compare to the US. Second, if EPL would miraculously revolutionize itself to the USmodel, it will lose competitiveness in terms of wage structure and everyone would leave for Spain and Italy. It would require a Euro-wide revolution and that will never happen.

My point is that a) it's a waste of breath to talk about it and b) a club like liverpool should not be the one coming out with this because it gives the wrong perception of them to players and non-liverpool fans.

This was based on the snippet the OP quoted. I didn't look deeper into it.

Sports, if by fringe players you mean middle relievers, 7-9 hitters, and bench players, then sure. but that's a good 8-10 players per team... hence me saying it's prevalent. This is what teams due for players that aren't stars or guaranteed starters.

That's why I've assumed it will be the same with Liverpool. Because that's a logical strategy and still lines up with the quotes, as opposed to the incredibly stupid one everyone else has assumed it means. Occam's Razor, right?

Liverpool and Arsenal should reform the wage structure.

Give bonuses who give their heart on the field and punish those lazy bastards who get money for doing absolutely nothing.

Liverpool's insidious incentive-based plan is revealed!

For every three consecutive victories LFC players receive... a free lunch at Brendan Rodgers expense!

BR: "I took the players to San Carlo because as one of the ways in which we have tried to get consistency into the team. I said to the players that going forward in the new year if we got three wins on the trot I would pay for lunch. So we got off to a flayer. Maybe I should have tried it in August. When they won at Mansfield, one of the first things they said in the changing room afterwards was, 'You better get your money out.' Team spirit is important and even though it was just a nice lunch, the more you are together your spirit just grows. Small things like that can help you. I think the players enjoyed it as well so we have started the run again. I realised that it could cost me a few bob when Glen Johnson was having apple tart."

And some of you thought the plan wouldn't be competitive!

That bump.

Money...? Pssh! Professional footballers have that in spades.

Offer apple tart and...
all of a sudden they're willing to run through walls for you.