The 2nd highest paid person at SFC

[Nordic Saint]

The second highest earner at Southampton is, according to the Echo:

McCarthy's Southampton deal reportedly made him second-highest earner | Daily Echo

 

 

[Saint Garrett]

No surprise is it.

He was offered a contract in line with Fraser when he was made no 1 a few seasons ago. At the time we was on the edge of the England squad. Fraser has now gone.

Atleast he's got a clause in his contract that it drops with the lack of games. Would explain why we've been hesitant to take Bazunu out the firing line though.

[Dman]

14 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

No surprise is it.

He was offered a contract in line with Fraser when he was made no 1 a few seasons ago. At the time we was on the edge of the England squad. Fraser has now gone.

Atleast he's got a clause in his contract that it drops with the lack of games. Would explain why we've been hesitant to take Bazunu out the firing line though.

McCarthy has always been a very average keeper and should never have been considered long term no1. 
 

Giving him a contract of that size is/was ludicrous and the fact we’re now cutting off our nose to spite our face, which is actively making us weaker (and arguably why we’re going down), just highlights the mismanagement of the club for years. 

[Suhari]

When is he out of contact?

[Weston Super Saint]

2 hours ago, Suhari said:

When is he out of contact?

If he goes over the bridge to Wales he'll lose signal just before Newport.  HTH.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

4 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

No surprise is it.

He was offered a contract in line with Fraser when he was made no 1 a few seasons ago. At the time we was on the edge of the England squad. Fraser has now gone.

Atleast he's got a clause in his contract that it drops with the lack of games. Would explain why we've been hesitant to take Bazunu out the firing line though.

We've had a massive outlay in players (and shoring the squad with January signings), while also following a policy of trimming the height of any peaks in the wage bill. No games for McCarthy, bye bye Redmond and Romeu. Super, if enough of the replacements improve the team. Horrific if... well this.

 

[saint1977]

Whoever made this decision must have been out of their mind. Second highest paid player behind JWP - what planet have the buffoons running SFC been on? Shows it’s not just Rasmus as this fuck up was in 2021 and the club didn’t even announce it from what I recall. Hope Wilcox can restore some common sense and some grounded thinking. 

[Nordic Saint]

16 hours ago, saint1977 said:

Whoever made this decision must have been out of their mind. Second highest paid player behind JWP - what planet have the buffoons running SFC been on? Shows it’s not just Rasmus as this fuck up was in 2021 and the club didn’t even announce it from what I recall. Hope Wilcox can restore some common sense and some grounded thinking. 

If Ward-Prowse is sold in the summer, which seems likely, Alex McCarthy will be our top earner unless we can get rid of him but who would want him?

[Chez]

On 25/04/2023 at 12:15, Saint Garrett said:

No surprise is it.

He was offered a contract in line with Fraser when he was made no 1 a few seasons ago. At the time we was on the edge of the England squad. Fraser has now gone.

At least he's got a clause in his contract that it drops with the lack of games. Would explain why we've been hesitant to take Bazunu out the firing line though.

Yep. He signed a four year contract in the summer of 2018 having just been voted player of the season and as you say, he was on the cusp of an England call up, which he got in October and then played for his first and only game in November 2018. At that point in 2018, you'd expect him to get a pretty sizeable contract. Not many well-established Prem League and potential England players earn peanuts. You're talking £70k+ a week, easy.

It's the three year contract, signed in the summer of 2021, that irks.

The 18/19 season went `so well' that they brought Gunn in the following summer to replace him.

The 19/20 season saw Gunn start the season, but McCarthy replaced Gunn after about ten games (cos he was shite) and did OK thereafter.

McCarthy played most of 20/21. That season was the one when both keepers were given an opportunity towards the end of the season to stake a claim for the number spot. I think there was plenty of debate as to which was the better keeper, McCarthy/Forster. Neither was overly impressive in my eyes to be honest, but I am not sure there were many that felt McCarthy had done enough to earn the number 1 shirt and a new contract. Not just that season, but over the course of the three seasons. But that's exactly what Ralf decided and with only a year left of his contract, he got the new deal.

I guess it is not beyond the realms to imagine the new contract in 2021 came with a slight wage rise, so let's say £80k+  a week...

...and here we are.  

[Saint_clark]

So we gave him a new contract to make him our second top earner and in that contract is a clause that makes us reluctant to use him even when the alternative keeper is clearly much worse. 

What a colossal f*ck up of a situation. Why give him the contract at all if we are going to refuse to use him?

[S-Clarke]

For all the internal clamour about us being so 'well run' and ''sensible'', we have probably made some of the worst footballing decisions in the country over the last few years. Nathan Jones, Moussa, McCarthy, Forster double contracts to name just a few.

Terribly run.

Edited 26 April, 2023 by S-Clarke

[Chez]

15 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

So we gave him a new contract to make him our second top earner and in that contract is a clause that makes us reluctant to use him even when the alternative keeper is clearly much worse. 

What a colossal f*ck up of a situation. Why give him the contract at all if we are going to refuse to use him?

we did use him. Pretty much all last season, except when he got injured . 

The clause is a good one. It meant that if we changed our mind about him, which we did last summer, and then didn't play him, the last year of his contract is a lot less expensive - he's effectively earning reserve keeper money, nont first team. About the only smart decision we made related to keepers.

[gonzo]

On 25/04/2023 at 16:37, Holmes_and_Watson said:

We've had a massive outlay in players (and shoring the squad with January signings), while also following a policy of trimming the height of any peaks in the wage bill. No games for McCarthy, bye bye Redmond and Romeu. Super, if enough of the replacements improve the team. Horrific if... well this.

 

I've actually been thinking we've really missed Redmond.  Not as much as Romeu, but even with him being as inconsistent as he was, his direct running did cause opposition defences some problems and at least he was pretty proficient at getting the ball into the box.