2020/21 James Rodriguez

[Sassy Colombian]

So it is true. The way James spoke, it seems he was told by Benitez or that Club that he is not wanted. Because when they ask him where would he want to play, he says wherever he is wanted. But he does say he is training hard and will continue training hard and that he must live in the present and the present is here (meaning Everton).

 

[BlueToff]

Be gutted if he leaves, but the way we seem to be forcing him out is a bit of disgrace to me.
Who do ww think we are telling a player like this he is “not needed”, the utter arrogance of it. Its not like we are top
4 monsters smashing teams all over the gaff.

and by “we” i clearly mean the royal we, or as in those making the decisions, and if its Rafael, then everyone needs be prepared to what he about to serve up for us.
I feel flat.

There just has to be a balance.

I've said this all along. James will happily stay or leave, Mendes will sort that either way. It was always going to be on the club.

We've clearly relied a lot on getting in money for Kean which we haven't so far managed to do. We've looked at the squad and James is the biggest earner left you'd imagine. He's also the only one of those high earners, probably bar Digne, that other clubs would pay the wages he's on for. So our board will be looking at it and think there's a quick buck there, because they know they can't get the others off the books - because they've shown no evidence whatsoever at being able to do that in the last 3-4 years.

 

[Old Blue 2]

this is just a taster of the destablilsing influence he can be when he's not happy. He raiises an eyebrow and twitter goes crazy. If he wante dto go, he can go. He certainly doesn't want to stay at Everton, so this is just pure snide aimed at Benitez

In other words, no player is bigger than the club...

Off you pop...

 

[The binman chronicles]

Everton do need to get rid of players who are on too much money.

There are four here: Fabian Delph, Andre Gomes, Alex Iwobi, Gylfi Sigurdsson (caveats for that last one).

Those four should all be shown the door before James is even being considered being unwanted. But that would rely on our DoF actually being able to get those players out of the door, which he's shown time and again over the last 3 years that he can't do.

I doubt the issue is wage related seeing we have already cleared several high earners off the books this summer. James (or more likely his agent) has probably been fuzzy with where his future lies and at some point you have to plan for the future. Yes like most I would keep James here even if it's for one season but perhaps the club are thinking longer term.

 

[jinkyali]

There seems to be only one place this stuff is coming from and it's not Everton

 

[ForeverBlue92]

But James is by far better than any of these, so get rid of those before you consider getting rid of James.

In the process, you save circa £350k a week on wages so that the £120k on James suddenly isn't a problem.

James directly contributed to 15 goals last season. That's a lot of goals to replace based on £5m saved wages and possibly a nominal fee.

But for those 15 goals he contributed how many points/goals did he cost us by not helping the defence like Richarlison/DCL does? Or missing half the season with injuries?

There is a reason teams like Leeds Utd finished above us with a bunch of plodders and thats work ethic and effort.

You get enough of them with a sprinkle of quality and you can over achieve.

James was always off when Carlo went - the sooner the fans accept it the better instead of pretending he's got the same influence on us like Lukaku did who carried us on his back every season.

 

[Kev50]

It has less to do with Benitez and more to do with the board.

Benitez and James are professionals. Benitez will know that James can be a very useful player for him, especially to keep fans onside. If he doesn't realise that, he's thick.

The club will need to shift his wages because we're completely useless at the top.

if he wanted to stay I'm sure the club would be just fine with it. He's top notch. But he has no intention of sticking around. Isn't that obvious?

 

[Dwight K Schrute]

Spot on.

This mad idea people have that he doesn't try is clearly based on some media-led stereotype.

Yeah, he's not a player who can physically cover as much ground quickly as others can. But that doesn't mean he doesn't try.

I like ForeverBlue, but his idea of a player to replace James is currently a lad bombed out of West Brom training because he isn't trying enough.

I'm sure he's a good bloke. It's really nothing personal but I just cannot get my head around how he views the team and players. I know we all have our own opinions etc. but his baffle me!

 

[BlueToff]

But for those 15 goals he contributed how many points/goals did he cost us by not helping the defence like Richarlison/DCL does? Or missing half the season with injuries?

There is a reason teams like Leeds Utd finished above us with a bunch of plodders and thats work ethic and effort.

You get enough of them with a sprinkle of quality and you can over achieve.

James was always off when Carlo went - the sooner the fans accept it the better instead of pretending he's got the same influence on us like Lukaku did who carried us on his back every season.

Ey? Mate, he's an attacker, and he did help the defence? I'm baffled. It's an attackers job to score and provide chances, first and foremost.

Leeds don't have a bunch of plodders. They have a coach who improves players and they made some good signings with power and pace, but they would have killed to have a player of James' quality in their squad too.

We'll get nowhere by constantly getting rid of our best players. Not because that can't work, btw, but because we don't have people in charge who know how to make it work. They've shown zero evidence of it over Stones, Lukaku, Barkley and Gana departures.

 

[wm02]

What the hell. He's an everton manager ffs. I'm giving him support. Feel likr i'm taking crazy pills. Is this an Everton website? Whats going on.

Different world outside of West Virginia.
Different world

 

[BlueToff]

if he wanted to stay I'm sure the club would be just fine with it. He's top notch. But he has no intention of sticking around. Isn't that obvious?

No it's not obvious. So don't be siding with the club out of blind faith.

James would probably happily go, he'd also probably happily stay. He's a professional footballer at the age of 30 playing in the Premier League on a good whack. He wants to play but his body can't get him through a full season.

It is much more likely the above is the case, so James, probably like Benitez, is indifferent.

The club will know that they can shift his wages easier than they can shift Gomes' wages, but that's everything that's wrong about it, because James offers more than Gomes, much more. Same goes for Delph, same goes for Iwobi. Etc etc. But those players are hard to shift, so we have to shift an easy player - who happens to be our best player.

If the club have said to James 'you can go if we get a decent bid', then he probably is miffed, because he'll know he's the best player at the club. And for us, it shows how we constantly, constantly get things wrong.

If James was on a four-year contract, I'd understand. But we'd save £5m, give or take, on wages for the one season he has left. What's the point? What is the point? Because his quality could easily be worth more than £5m over the course of the season - heck, that's the difference between finishing in 7th and 10th in prize money.

 

[Dwight K Schrute]

But for those 15 goals he contributed how many points/goals did he cost us by not helping the defence like Richarlison/DCL does? Or missing half the season with injuries?

There is a reason teams like Leeds Utd finished above us with a bunch of plodders and thats work ethic and effort.

You get enough of them with a sprinkle of quality and you can over achieve.

James was always off when Carlo went - the sooner the fans accept it the better instead of pretending he's got the same influence on us like Lukaku did who carried us on his back every season.

I really don't think you can quantify goals conceded due to your CAM or RW not doing more running mate. Think that's just you not wanting to back down. Dom is amazing at heading out opposition corners and would no doubt have saved us from conceding on several occasions because of this - but we can't quantify it. But your argument would be like us then signing Haaland and having a go at him for smashing in 25 goals but not heading away as many opposition corners as Dom did. At some point responsibility passes to others in the team. And as I said - James is not a shirker. He worked hard most of the time. And I would rather have someone who is brave enough to want the ball and try to do something with it than a crab or someone who actively hides from it, or someone who just runs around a lot.

Also Leeds have some very good players. Philips works his socks off and has a great engine but has passing range that far exceeds any of our midfield bar James. Raphina has amazing feet and a good end product, Harrison was erratic but improving all the time, Allioski has two quick feet, good close control and excellent movement and so on. Don't get your argument at all there.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

Ey? Mate, he's an attacker, and he did help the defence? I'm baffled. It's an attackers job to score and provide chances, first and foremost.

Leeds don't have a bunch of plodders. They have a coach who improves players and they made some good signings with power and pace, but they would have killed to have a player of James' quality in their squad too.

We'll get nowhere by constantly getting rid of our best players. Not because that can't work, btw, but because we don't have people in charge who know how to make it work. They've shown zero evidence of it over Stones, Lukaku, Barkley and Gana departures.

Its a team game now mate you cant have passengers not helping out defensively look at how Coleman was left doubled up on when James was out wide.

I honestly cant fathom how people think losing a bloke who's been here 12 months and carried us to the dizzy heights of 10th is a disaster - and I'll be honest its the same for most of our players who I wouldn't be fussed if they left after the last few seasons.

He wasn't even our best player last season! Now if we replace him with Iwobi or some farmer I'll agree that it was wrong getting rid but we don't know who his replacement would be could be a young creative player who actually has pace and can cover acres of ground then suddenly its James who?

 

[blueconverse]

If he leaves this club can gtf

 

[orly]

Be gutted if he leaves, but the way we seem to be forcing him out is a bit of disgrace to me.
Who do ww think we are telling a player like this he is “not needed”, the utter arrogance of it. Its not like we are top
4 monsters smashing teams all over the gaff.

and by “we” i clearly mean the royal we, or as in those making the decisions, and if its Rafael, then everyone needs be prepared to what he about to serve up for us.
I feel flat.

It's the fat Kopite pig that we have in charge. Went straight to the little plebs at the Echo and it has rolled out from there.

Cesspit of a club at the moment.