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2021/22 James Rodriguez

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ToffeeMonster said:
By far our most talented, high-profile and greatest beacon of hope we've had in years though.
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He might be talented but he is a fraud ,no not the Benitez saga but last season when he was on a private jet " injured " ,he got his comeuppance when he was dropped by the national coach .I don't like the way he was treated this season and think Benitez should have swallowed his pride but James is a rot in the dressing room akin to Mirallas and the Snide .We are well shut of the like .
 

blue1948 said:
He might be talented but he is a fraud ,no not the Benitez saga but last season when he was on a private jet " injured " ,he got his comeuppance when he was dropped by the national coach .I don't like the way he was treated this season and think Benitez should have swallowed his pride but James is a rot in the dressing room akin to Mirallas and the Snide .We are well shut of the like .
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If it was down to Benitez (and I have seen no proof to convince me that it is), then had Benitez given way to Rodriguez then his authority was shot and open to being hostage to any player in the future. It is not unreasonable to expect a player to know which team the club is playing next week, whether they were to figure in the game or not. He didn't give a crap - simples
 
The only issue I have with the departure of the beautiful James is that Senor Benitez appears to have no problem fielding useless never-will-bes like Iwobi, Davies, Holgate, Kenny, and Gomes. I completely get Benitez's desire to have a team of hard working players as default - and then add a smattering of quality over the top. I also sympathise with the notion that Rodriguez is something of a circus act with a dubious attitude these days. If Benitez wants rid, fine. He's the manager and it is right that he lives and dies by his decisions, where at all possible. But if James must be purged, why the lenience shown to the previously mentioned detritus? Why is Alex Iwobi being indulged? Why is Andre Gomes being persisted with? Why are Davies and Kenny still at the club? Why is Holgate being sponsored by Wrigley's?

Some of those - notably Gomes and Iwobi - are on lucrative contracts, so surely if there is a need to balance books they need to go too?

I respect the manager's right to make his mind up on a player and get him out the door. Managers must make the final decision when it comes to players. But his willingness to suffer suspect mediocre players who can be relied on to let you down does not speak well for his sense of fair play. Benitez is well within his rights to dispense with James. But he will now be judged by me not on his dismissal of the golden boy, but on his willingness to tolerate the characterless dross that infests our current squad. If we find ourselves in the bottom quarter of the table this season, he will deserve all the opprobrium he attracts. If he can get us mid table or better, he will get next summer to resculpt the squad in a more expansive image. If we are still tolerating the Iwobis and Gomeses this time next year, Benitez will be gone by the following Christmas because moderates like me, always the majority at any club, will revolt. He's fine once he has the reasonables on side - and he does right now - but once we turn, it'll be a mere waiting game for the axe to fall.

Getting rid of James, fine. Tolerating abject chokers, suicide. Get some quality in, Senor, or the decentskins will start withholding the benefit of the doubt...
 
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Drico said:
The only issue I have with the departure of the beautiful James is that Senor Benitez appears to have no problem fielding useless never-will-bes like Iwobi, Davies, Holgate, Kenny, and Gomes. I completely get Benitez's desire to have a team of hard working players as default - and then add a smattering of quality over the top. I also sympathise with the notion that Rodriguez is something of a circus act with a dubious attitude these days. If Benitez wants rid, fine. He's the manager and it is right that he lives and dies by his decisions, where at all possible. But if James must be purged, why the lenience shown to the previously mentioned detritus? Why is Alex Iwobi being indulged? Why is Andre Gomes being persisted with? Why are Davies and Kenny still at the club? Why is Holgate being sponsored by Wrigley's?

Some of those - notably Gomes and Iwobi - are on lucrative contracts, so surely if there is a need to balance books they need to go too?

I respect the manager's right to make his mind up on a player and get him out the door. Managers must make the final decision when it comes to players. But his willingness to suffer suspect mediocre players who can be relied on to let you down does not speak well for his sense of fair play. Benitez is well within his rights to dispense with James. But he will now be judged by me not on his dismissal of the golden boy, but on his willingness to tolerate the characterless dross that infests our current squad. If we find ourselves in the bottom quarter of the table this season, he will deserve all the opprobrium he attracts. If he can get us mid table or better, he will get next summer to resculpt the squad in a more expansive image. If we are still tolerating the Iwobis and Gomeses this time next year, Benitez will be gone be the following Christmas because moderates like me, always the majority at any club, will revolt. He's fine once he has the reasonables on side - and he does right now - but once we turn, it'll be a mere waiting game for the axe to fall.
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well written post.
I think mid table is a bit lenient as a goal for this season. As many have said on here, the goal will be to do as well as Carlo did last year with much the same resources. Anything less than that is a failure.
 
Charles Hawtrey said:
well written post.
I think mid table is a bit lenient as a goal for this season. As many have said on here, the goal will be to do as well as Carlo did last year with much the same resources. Anything less than that is a failure.
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I'm not sure I agree that the squad is as strong as last season. We have lost James and Sigurdsson - two of our three highest-profile players. We have no cover in full back positions. Sure, we got in Townsend and Gray, but I don't see those two as better than what we have lost. Rondon may or may not be an improvement on King. Coleman is a year older. We are not a club on the rise. I think mid-table is where we will end up and I won't complain too loudly if the manager is shaping the side in a recognisable manner. He has spent 1.7m when most of our direct rivals have spent far more. He will get time, but he needs to show that James had to go for good reasons, not because he mistrusts talent and indulges mediocrity. I'll give him a fair wind to do that.
 

Drico said:
I'm not sure I agree that the squad is as strong as last season. We have lost James and Sigurdsson - two of our three highest-profile players. We have no cover in full back positions. Sure, we got in Townsend and Gray, but I don't see those two as better than what we have lost. Rondon may or may not be an improvement on King. Coleman is a year older. We are not a club on the rise. I think mid-table is where we will end up and I won't complain too loudly if the manager is shaping the side in a recognisable manner. He has spent 1.7m when most of our direct rivals have spent far more. He will get time, but he needs to show that James had to go for good reasons, not because he mistrusts talent and indulges mediocrity. I'll give him a fair wind to do that.
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Losing James and Sigurdsson surely cannot be an issue! I have just read dozens of comments that James was a lazy, unfit waste of wages who everyone is glad we got shut of, obviously no good as no one else came in for him during the window.
As for Valdemort, cast your mind back to last season when many of the same folks labelled him a lazy player who only knew how to point and was also scamming a living off the club.
We've added Townsend and Gray who run an awful lot and therefore must be better!
10th place and 59 points is the yardstick set by Carlo Ancelotti, who also apparently stunk the gaff out last season
 
4737carlin said:
This is funny, he has gone to a nonsense league with a grand total of 12 teams, twelve haha the Qatar Stars League, for perspective it has the same amount of teams as The Scottish Premiership and it proberbly even more irrelivant.
Hands up who could name a team in the Qatar Stars League? Who could name a player prior too today who has ever played in it? This time waster has decided thats were he wants to be, or more likely no clubs in any major league would touch him, and fans are gutted this clown has gone, really?
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I could but I am proper clever.
 
Charles Hawtrey said:
Losing James and Sigurdsson surely cannot be an issue! I have just read dozens of comments that James was a lazy, unfit waste of wages who everyone is glad we got shut of, obviously no good as no one else came in for him during the window.
As for Valdemort, cast your mind back to last season when many of the same folks labelled him a lazy player who only knew how to point and was also scamming a living off the club.
We've added Townsend and Gray who run an awful lot and therefore must be better!
10th place and 59 points is the yardstick set by Carlo Ancelotti, who also apparently stunk the gaff out last season
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:) You're right, but I can only speak for myself. I rate both players and always have, despite their flaws - and Carlo was very close to achieving something tangible for us last season but was let down by the squad. While he did indeed stink out the home ground last season, his away results will not be bettered this term. One can only hope Senor Benitez can mitigate the inevitably poorer away results with immeasurably better home ones.
 

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