Emre Can Deal Delay Due to Gulf Between Wage and Release Clause Demands

Emre Can wants six-figure wages and a release clause, and with less than a year to run on his current contract and the player free to sign an agreement with another club in January, a lot of Liverpool fans want to see him given what he wants to secure his long-term future.

The club aren’t against doing just that. At least not according to Goal’s Melissa Reddy. Despite that fact, Can and the club remain at an impasse. The problem isn’t wages, and it isn’t a release clause. At least not generally. The club have given them to other players, and would not be against Can having one.

The problem is that so far, Can’s agents have reportedly pushed for a release clause well below what the club believe the player’s market value is—a release clause they do not believe is in line with expectation for a player who would potentially be receiving a six-figure wage.

In short, they want to see Can paid like a star, one of the club’s top earners. But they want a release clause below market value that would allow an easy escape for the player, potentially as insurance for if Can were to not receive the playing time he would like.

Can reportedly is happy at the club and not looking to move on, but if he isn’t starting regularly he would like the ability to do so without struggling to find a suitor able to pay the fee. In theory this doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable, but in practice it would make it easy for Can to be poached.

There may also be other factors—concerning when his release can be triggered and by whom—that are holding up a new deal, but while it’s easy to see why Can would seek what amounts to playing time insurance before signing a new deal, it’s just as easy to see why the club would resist.

In the end, a deal will likely still get done so that Liverpool can avoid losing Can on a free, and when it is done it is likely to be a deal in the player’s favour given his increasing bargaining power. In the meantime, what’s holding it up isn’t as simple as wages or the existence of a release clause.