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Why on earth did we sell James Rodriguez?

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Legend Barry Horne said:
The whole thing is one of the strangest things to happen in football. He's now playing in QATAR - he's only 30 - and had decent records at both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. I don't think in reality he was anything like as bad or lazy last season for us as some people are making out.
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You seen how he's getting on over there mate? lol
 

he is a brilliantly talented player who has lost the hunger to compete, when signing players we really need to look more into the character of an individual for where we are as a club (we are terrible at this)
 
We've already got one of the most toxic/weak minded squads in the league. Keeping him would have made improving that nigh on impossible. How can you kick the arse of players like Iwobi, Digne, Davies, Holgate when you've got a mega money player strolling through games and deciding when he wants to play? You can't.

You will not find one person question James Rodriguez ability.... Not one, but you will find many saying that him not being here is a good thing.

He has more money than he will ever need but he follows the £££. If he went back to South America he could have still pulled in £80k -£100k a week which is half of what he earns but he would be close to his daughter. Football clearly isn't his passion anymore.

He has gone to a non footballing country filled with money and mercenaries..... He got himself sent off the other day. Yes he was right to be angry initially but after his yellow it seemed he wanted to get red. Seen this for us against Sheff United.

He's just another Eto, Gazza, Ginola, Hughes..... Players who despite being brilliant once we're just here to get a final cash top up. Last time round it took us to sell Rooney to financially patch up that sort of squad.
 
Egil Olsen said:
Let's wait and see. I agree that we do not have much depth in the squad, but I think it was the right decision to sell JR. Right now we have injuries to important players, AD and DCL, Mina and Digne, and Richarlison is probably not quite in match form. It makes us a little more predictable offensively, and a little more vulnerable defensively.

Are we one-dimensional? Maybe, but I think we start at the right end, and it takes time for changes to have an effect. We must be solid defensively, but we must also have the ability to take advantage of the opportunities that arise in the transition phases. Most goals in football are scored after 6 or less passes, and preferably after 10 -12 seconds after ball recovery.

Furthermore, most goals have their origin / start from the middle third, and most goals come after passes behind the defensive line or to a player who is on the line to the defensive line. Then 30-40 percent of the goals are scored after a set piece. I think these are the principles Rafael is working on now in the first period.

This means that we avoid having too much ball possession in the first and middle third, and rather seek to take advantage of the opponent having more of the ball. Considering the players we are in possession of, I think it is a sensible strategy. Eventually we have to develop, of course, but then we need other types of players.

But in this strategy, JR does not fit in, possibly as a substitute, but he would hardly have been happy with that, and is not rational financial management.

Too long text, sorry.
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Mate, you don’t have to apologise for a long response, not when it’s as considered as that.

I don’t disagree with a lot of what you say and there are a lot of issues with James. I’m just being pragmatic, bearing in mind we brought nobody in to replace him. If it’s a choice between forcing him out the club and keeping Gomes, Delph, Iwobi - none of whom offer anything in the system you describe and cost us a fortune - I’d have forced any one of those or all out first as I think James offered more when available.
 
Would put James in same category of players where his attitude gets could get managers sacked like Ballotelli... Berbatov and Ballack at Chelsea few years ago... all luxury players who for whatever reason never put in a full shift. A very very small number managed to get away with it down to sheer ability like Le Tissier and Ibrahimovic.
 
Legend Barry Horne said:
We had a truly world class player - Benitez decided he didn’t fit his style to the extent he needed to sell him - other new signings have done well but maybe are being sussed out a bit. In a light squad, surely James could be helping us right now?? The whole thing was bizarre
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We needed his wages off the books. End of.

As much as I didn't want him to go, for what his wages were (£150k-200k p/wk, in that range) we decided less than 30 games out of him per-season couldn't be afforded. Add in that he wasn't arsed about where he was, he just wanted to play footy, but he can't stay fit, so it was a sensible solution.

It wasn't a sensible solution to get rid outside of our transfer window, though. However, that's where the club is at financially. That's not on James, or Benitez. It's on our owner, our board and our useless DoF.
 

windymiller said:
Aren't we? Townsend and Rondon were on £60k and between £100k and £250k depending on which reports you believe. Did they both take gigantic pay cuts for the glory of playing for the toffees?

Spoilers - they didn't.
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Townsend is probably on about £50k. There's no way Rondon was on anything like £100k a week.
 

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