I agree on the Wolves thing. But you know the club should also have made him be there?
On the City game, he wasn't fit, so couldn't, by the COVID protocols, have travelled to the game. He'd have been sat at home in Formby watching us get tonked on Sky like everyone else.
He shouldn't have put the picture on of him on the plane, it was daft, properly stupid thing to do. The club gave him permission to leave though so, as ever, your anger should be directed at the right people.
Yes mate, he should have been there for the Wolves game and I agree it's on the club to insist he attends, specifically Ancelotti.
Footballers who play at the highest level live in a bubble. In James' case, he's a national icon in Colombia, so has become a massive celebrity with a huge social media following. He's treated like a rock star there. No English player has ever had that level of adulation, so it's something we can't fully comprehend.
Football means everything to the people of Colombia. This is a country where a player was murdered five days after scoring an own goal at the World Cup. Has all the adulation turned James into a bit of a primadonna? Maybe, maybe not, but you could understand if it had.
Ancelotti didn't do him any favours with his "He's a bit tired" comments before the Wolves game. In fact, I was scratching my head all season at some of his pre-match injury updates. The information he gave was often puzzling, misleading or simply incorrect.
Watching James for the Sheffield Utd game, he looked completely unfit and I was surprised he was kept on the pitch for most of the game. The Wolves game was three days later, so Ancelotti should have just said James wasn't fit enough to play two games in three days and his dodgy calf wasn't up to it. In fact, he should have just selected him, but put him on the bench.
Even if he wasn't selected for the Wolves game, the club should have made sure the whole squad was there. One could argue James should have wanted to be there, and that's fair enough because, traditionally, the last home game gives the players the opportunity to thank the fans for their support during the season, and for the fans to appreciate the players efforts.
However, last season was a strange season like no other. There were no fans. Even for the couple of games that did have a few fans, James didn't play, so he never had the opportunity to connect with fans in any way. Maybe if he'd experienced that he'd have wanted to be there. Maybe not. We'll never know.
I understand why people are annoyed by some of his behaviour, but bearing in mind the slightly bizarre bubble he lives in and putting into context all of the above, I'm prepared to be magnanimous about him.
What's important now is getting behind the team and, if selected by Benitez, getting behind James, too. It's what he does on the pitch that really matters.
