Replacing my keeper

[fm20]

I'm managing Liverpool. It's January 2015. I've won the league both previous seasons and am currently sitting top, 6 points clear of Man City.

Reina is now 32. He's been on good form for me. Very few mistakes and consistently high ratings. I have a long term replacement signed on a free at the start of the season - Maxym Koval, 22. He's played a handful of games and also done well. He could be a top, top goalkeeper.

Reina has started to question my managerial abilities; my new assistant reports that he struggles to motivate himself playing for me. I suspect he'll be looking to move at some stage in the future anyway (new challenge etc). Koval wants to go out on loan. He won't accept Hull (my affiliate); Real Madrid made a loan offer which I rejected; he wouldn't be a starter and he's better warming my bench than theirs. My DoF hasn't found another suitable loan club.

I don't think I can keep both of these players happy for the rest of the season as things stand. I have five options I think - keep both, rotate regularly; keep both, start Reina, annoy Koval; keep both start Koval, annoy Reina; Sell Reina; Let Koval go to Real and risk him deteriorating out of my control/deciding he prefers Madrid.

Reina has 18 months left on his contract at £90,000 a week. He's currently valued at £10.5m but I can get more for him - a world class keep in his prime. I'd probably be happy with £15m or more. Koval has a 3 year contract on £15,000 a week and is valued at £2.4m.

Reina is rated at 5* for current ability. Koval at 3.5* with 5* PA. Reina has slightly better aerial, speed and physical ratings; Koval is less eccentric and a marginally better shot stopper. Mental/communication ratings are pretty much the same. According to my assistant, Reina is consistent, Koval is good for important matches. The big weakness with Koval is rushing out (poor rating for that and speed).

This is a slight concern as I play with a high line and typically like to have my keeper as an SK. Checking the stats he's typically not exposed that often. I suspect small adjustments, training and time will take care of that.

I'm assuming that if I sell Reina and promote Koval to starter that he'll be happy not going on loan - I can't communicate this to him in advance however. None of my players have Reina listed as a favourite, but there's obviously a chance of upsetting the team.

Should I sell him?

 

[halleluja]

sell reina, loan/sell koval, buy ter stegen or hart as a first keaper and butland as a backup

 

[psk14]

Hi ,

Try to iron out the problems with Reina, maybe talk to him to cheer him up or give him a boost in a press conference etc. This is just so you get back on his good side. I say this because good keepers can play into their late 30s and if I have a good keeper like you such as Reina, I wont sign a fantastic prospect until that keeper gets a bit older or starts to decline - A 5* prospect has no use on the bench.

Selling Reina isn't such a bad idea because youngsters improve dramatically quicker if they are actually playing games and performing well, rather than playing at a lower level or sitting on the bench. If Pepe continues to cry just sell him and back Koval as Number 1.

 

[fm20]

I've never really looked at ter Stegen before although I know he's good and the scout reports are excellent. He's actually a great replacement for Reina. However, at an estimated £20m-£24m and an expected wage of £120k-£165k he would leave a serious dent in my finances. Gerrard and Isco are both on £120k/week so he would become my top earner and I'd expect to have every other top player coming for new contracts. Hart's not young enough to justify what I'm doing. Butland is OK and I considered him last season, but £7m is a lot for a backup (I have better players out on loan right now).

I'm not sure that there's really anything to iron out with Reina - he's not unhappy, just comes with the match reports that he's struggling to motivate himself due to me. I certainly can't talk to him about it. Since I signed Koval on a free, I thought there was little risk and I already suspected Reina was coming into his last season with me which gave me time to bed Koval in, loan him out then have him ready for the coming year.

There's a big financial element here - the prospect of paying for ter Stegen, Hart or any other top class established goalkeeper makes my head hurt (although I do have enough budget for transfer and salary, with plenty left over). Even more so when I one of the best prospects in the world is already playing for me. On the flip side, even £15m for Reina would actually level out my transfer spending/receipts for the season and give me a lifetime profit... I guess my question comes down to whether I think he's going to lose value and by the time the summer comes around he'll be down to a year left on his contract.

Given this, I may try to offer a new contract. If I can get him to sign up for not much more per week and for a few years I may keep him and worry about a replacement later. If Koval keeps the potential after another half season, great; if not I'll probably make a profit on him and add him to the list of young goalkeeper's careers I've ruined.

 

[fm20]

He wants £145,000 / week with a £44,000 clean sheet bonus (up from £10,000), a £600,000 team of the year bonus and his agent wants £1.3m. For a one year extension (a 30 month contract in total).

Suddenly my decision is much easier.

 

[Raikan007]

here are a few that that have not been mentioned:

some like Jefferson/Carrasso/Victor may be a little too old now for you as you are in 2015

 

[Tezzz]

I sold Reina first season for 15mil to Arsenal. I also bought Ter Stegen for about 25mil I think. He's been great for me apart from the odd blip (but I think thats the ******* game engine)

 

[fm20]

Thanks Raikan, that's a really useful list... Scouting and shortlisted them.

Reina is gone for £16.5m to Juventus - £5m up front with the rest over four years. My fans are disappointed at him leaving for a low transfer fee, but I'm not sure I could have got more. Koval has been offered a new contract as a first team player and he's first choice for at least the rest of the season.

 

[fm20]

I got as far as the last day of the transfer window. Koval, having accepted a new £53k/week first team player contract has decided at 10.30am to hand in a transfer request...

He's not unhappy and morale is high. He's started a 6 consecutive games since Reina left and done OK (not brilliant, but I wouldn't expect that).

****.

 

[fm20]

Koval is gone. I didn't get much for him - £3 million, plus 20% sale value (but for a free signing that's not bad). He's gone to West Ham.

In place ter Stegen has signed for £21m and £83k/week, which is better than I feared. Overall I've spent, net, about £3m on goalkeepers this transfer window. My wage bill is about the same (slightly less I guess), but I've now got ter Stegen with Hildebrande as a backup instead of Reina and Koval.

Buying ter Stegen had some interesting knock on effects - Gladbach bought Begovic from Stoke (currently 17th in the league), who bought Forster from Celtic. The fact that Koval went to West Ham is also fun as their 1st choice keeper was Jason Steele, who I'd sold to them at the start of the season... It's now 6:45pm so still a few hours of the window to go.