Carlos Alcaraz

[CB Fry]

10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

So you’d prefer to have Alcaraz in this team, with McCarthy in goal?

We definitely overpaid on the goalkeeper. Absolutely catastrophic decision - our biggest outlay and we've let in 57 already anyway and minimum three in pretty much every single game. Some spectacular saves when we lose 3-0 anyway? Great.

More investment further up the pitch to actually score more and in the middle of the park to stop more attacks.

It's not about McCarthy but we should have targeted a less expensive keeper.

[Lighthouse]

26 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

We’ve got NINE points. Nobody would have been much of a loss to this team.
Fernandes 1 goal and 2 assists have produced a grand total of 0 points. 
 

Alcaraz has got 1 goal and 1 assist in 1 start for Everton. 

Fernandes is, by a long way, our player of the season. Alcaraz's assist came from a Palace throw in to nobody, which he squared to Beto. The goal was a rebound which fell to him eight yards out. He'll have to do a fair bit more for me to wish we had him in the team instead of MF.

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

We definitely overpaid on the goalkeeper. Absolutely catastrophic decision - our biggest outlay and we've let in 57 already anyway and minimum three in pretty much every single game. Some spectacular saves when we lose 3-0 anyway? Great.

More investment further up the pitch to actually score more and in the middle of the park to stop more attacks.

It's not about McCarthy but we should have targeted a less expensive keeper.

I certainly don't disagree that Ramsdale hasn't exactly been amazing but I don't think Alcaraz is what we're missing.

[Gloucester Saint]

8 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

We definitely overpaid on the goalkeeper. Absolutely catastrophic decision - our biggest outlay and we've let in 57 already anyway and minimum three in pretty much every single game. Some spectacular saves when we lose 3-0 anyway? Great.

More investment further up the pitch to actually score more and in the middle of the park to stop more attacks.

It's not about McCarthy but we should have targeted a less expensive keeper.

And to help pay for it, not been sentimental fools and wasted more money on a 2 year extension for McCarthy. Which compounded the original disaster £14m outlay on a League 1 keeper (only just L1 quality as well).

[Badger]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

Fernandes is, by a long way, our player of the season. Alcaraz's assist came from a Palace throw in to nobody, which he squared to Beto. The goal was a rebound which fell to him eight yards out. He'll have to do a fair bit more for me to wish we had him in the team instead of MF.

Yes, planting the ball in the net from eight yards. That’s not going to impress anyone is it ?

But it is a stark contrast to most of our fuckers yesterday who in the same position would look to take a touch and pass it sideways to someone else in a poorer position to take responsibility of taking a shot.

 

[Lord Duckhunter]

When the Palace throw in fell to his feet, he did this amazing thing. He ran forward and passed it forward to create the goal. Unbelievable, no wonder Lego got rid….

[Miltonaggro]

2 hours ago, Toussaint said:

He’d have played one of them at full back 

Not in front of Manning!

[Barsiem]

I like Alcaraz and really hope he succeeds but the meltdown on here for us selling him is a bit ridiculous....

In the last 18 months Alcaraz has failed to make any sort of mark playing for one of the best squads in the Championship, failed to make any sort of mark playing for a better than average team in Serie A, failed to make any sort of mark playing for a top team in South America, scored and assisted in one game and started well (but only 3 games in) for a mediocre team in the Premier League who are in good form.

Fernandez may not have scored as many but he's been much more consistent, whilst playing in an appalling team, and he's only 20.  I hope they both have long and successful careers, but if I had to pick one player that I think will be the better overall player, it's Fernandez all the way

[Whitey Grandad]

3 hours ago, Toussaint said:

He’d have played one of them at full back 

We finished the game yesterday with four full backs.

[austsaint]

31 minutes ago, Barsiem said:

I like Alcaraz and really hope he succeeds but the meltdown on here for us selling him is a bit ridiculous....

In the last 18 months Alcaraz has failed to make any sort of mark playing for one of the best squads in the Championship, failed to make any sort of mark playing for a better than average team in Serie A, failed to make any sort of mark playing for a top team in South America, scored and assisted in one game and started well (but only 3 games in) for a mediocre team in the Premier League who are in good form.

Fernandez may not have scored as many but he's been much more consistent, whilst playing in an appalling team, and he's only 20.  I hope they both have long and successful careers, but if I had to pick one player that I think will be the better overall player, it's Fernandez all the way

I don’t think there’s a person on this forum who would disagree with your last paragraph.  

[Gloucester Saint]

4 minutes ago, austsaint said:

I don’t think there’s a person on this forum who would disagree with your last paragraph.  

Agreed too, our point is that it shouldn’t be an either/or, and in better times we’d have them competing. 

[BarberSaint]

3 hours ago, RedArmy said:

We’ve got NINE points. Nobody would have been much of a loss to this team.
Fernandes 1 goal and 2 assists have produced a grand total of 0 points. 
 

Alcaraz has got 1 goal and 1 assist in 1 start for Everton. 

 

 

Which helped them get 3 points. It was the match-winning goal so in one game he's effectively got them 1/3 of our total points for the season.

[HKsaint]

He is lucky. He has escaped from Southampton. I think this represents most of our players’ feeling right now. 

[Convict Colony]

22 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

He looked poor in the Championship, Juventus didn't rate him and nobody in the PL wanted to buy him in summer. Selling him allowed us to buy Ramsdale and we've got Fernandes in his position, who is a far better player.

Let's not get too excited because a rebound fell to his feet eight yards out against Palace.

Juventus didnt rate the 50m euros cost to make him perm and their director has been tracking him for a few years.

"But according to Calciomercato, Juventus would like to maintain Alcaraz on a permanent basis.

As the source explains, the Bianconeri never intended to activate their buy option within the current terms, but they were willing to instill a high redemption fee to push the deal through as they were desperate to add a new midfielder to the fold.

Therefore, Juve will have to renegotiate new terms with Southampton in the summer in order to keep the young Argentina at Continassa.

The report also details how Juventus Football Director Cristiano Giuntoli had already tried to sign Alcaraz in 2022 while serving as the sporting director of Napoli.

That operation was blocked by club president Aurelio De Laurentiis who wasn’t willing to meet the player’s price."

 

[Lighthouse]

4 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Juventus didnt rate the 50m euros cost to make him perm and their director has been tracking him for a few years.

"But according to Calciomercato, Juventus would like to maintain Alcaraz on a permanent basis.

As the source explains, the Bianconeri never intended to activate their buy option within the current terms, but they were willing to instill a high redemption fee to push the deal through as they were desperate to add a new midfielder to the fold.

Therefore, Juve will have to renegotiate new terms with Southampton in the summer in order to keep the young Argentina at Continassa.

The report also details how Juventus Football Director Cristiano Giuntoli had already tried to sign Alcaraz in 2022 while serving as the sporting director of Napoli.

That operation was blocked by club president Aurelio De Laurentiis who wasn’t willing to meet the player’s price."

 

They could have bought him for much less than €50m. They chose not to.

[pimpin4rizeal]

This one still pisses me off . I see Everton have signed up our charly. Some of the decisions by Rm are just mind boggling and this is one of them he’s proved on two occasions now he’s premiership quality yet Martin would prefer smallbone and aribo 

[Toussaint]

28 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

This one still pisses me off . I see Everton have signed up our charly. Some of the decisions by Rm are just mind boggling and this is one of them he’s proved on two occasions now he’s premiership quality yet Martin would prefer smallbone and aribo 

RM likes automatons, Charlie isn’t that. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

You really need to move on, as does anyone who still misses him.

He was a bit part player in the four months he was in the Championship, and he was just the best of a bad bunch when we were relegated from the Premier League.

In the grand scheme of things he didn’t do anything significant.

[Lighthouse]

28 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

This one still pisses me off . I see Everton have signed up our charly. Some of the decisions by Rm are just mind boggling and this is one of them he’s proved on two occasions now he’s premiership quality yet Martin would prefer smallbone and aribo 

No, we (collectively) decided we’d prefer Ramsdale. Alcaraz has hardly uprooted any trees at Goodison, he doesn’t even start for them half the time.

He was poor in the Championship, didn’t do anything in Serie A and the only buyer we could find involved a flight back south of the equator. Of all the things the club has done wrong, selling Alcaraz wasn’t one of them.

[skintsaint]

I mean, Alcaraz hasn't exactly lit Everton up has he? Still a lot to prove.

[Britannia]

I liked when he tried to have a fight with about 5 Lazio players preseason.

[Sheaf Saint]

53 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

No, we (collectively) decided we’d prefer Ramsdale. Alcaraz has hardly uprooted any trees at Goodison, he doesn’t even start for them half the time.

He was poor in the Championship, didn’t do anything in Serie A and the only buyer we could find involved a flight back south of the equator. Of all the things the club has done wrong, selling Alcaraz wasn’t one of them.

He was poor in the Championship because he was shackled by RM's dogmatic possession first philosophy, and was under instruction to play in such a way that doesn't suit his strengths. On the few occasions he was able to express himself, he showed more ability on the ball than anyone else in the squad.

He absolutely would have improved our attack last season if he'd have stayed and been given a bit of freedom to run at players and take risks in the opposition third, but with RM in charge that was never on the table.

Edited Tuesday at 19:48 by Sheaf Saint

[Lighthouse]

39 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

He was poor in the Championship because he was shackled by RM's dogmatic possession first philosophy, and was under instruction to play in such a way that doesn't suit his strengths. On the few occasions he was able to express himself, he showed more ability on the ball than anyone else in the squad.

He absolutely would have improved our attack last season if he'd have stayed and been given a bit of freedom to run at players and take risks in the opposition third, but with RM in charge that was never on the table.

You can blame RM for Alcaraz going missing in games, struggling with the pace and giving the ball away a lot if you want. You can blame RM for the fact that he contributed fewer goals in a similar role to the thoroughly mediocre Joe Rothwell. You can believe that a team which scored 91 goals in 49 games, despite the main striker being injured all season and scoring 0, stifled midfield creativity and didn't allow him to play.

That's all fine, I'm not going to dispute it. However, if you believe Russell Martin holds dominion over all of football and ordered every sporting director in Europe not to sign Alcaraz last summer, then I'll have to disagree on that.

[Sheaf Saint]

10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

if you believe Russell Martin holds dominion over all of football and ordered every sporting director in Europe not to sign Alcaraz last summer, then I'll have to disagree on that.

Wow. In all my years of posting on this forum and its predecessors, I don't think I've ever encountered such a blatant and, frankly, ridiculous straw man argument as this one. 

[Fabrice29]

11 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

He was poor in the Championship because he was shackled by RM's dogmatic possession first philosophy, and was under instruction to play in such a way that doesn't suit his strengths. On the few occasions he was able to express himself, he showed more ability on the ball than anyone else in the squad.

He absolutely would have improved our attack last season if he'd have stayed and been given a bit of freedom to run at players and take risks in the opposition third, but with RM in charge that was never on the table.

Shackled by having to pass the ball to his team mates 🤣

[Farmer Saint]

Alcaraz is bang average, and forever will be so. He's another in a long line that can have incredible moments, but they are too few and far between. For other examples please see:

Boufal, Sofiane

Ramirez, Gaston

Redmond, Nathan

Fernandes, Fabrice

et al

[tdmickey3]

1 minute ago, Farmer Saint said:

Alcaraz is bang average, and forever will be so. He's another in a long line that can have incredible moments, but they are too few and far between. For other examples please see:

Boufal, Sofiane

Ramirez, Gaston

Redmond, Nathan

Fernandes, Fabrice

et al

Stop it, he`s  a very good poster

[Saint_clark]

11 hours ago, skintsaint said:

I mean, Alcaraz hasn't exactly lit Everton up has he? Still a lot to prove.

2 goals and 3 assists in 763 minutes on the pitch. Far better return per minute played than anyone in our squad. 

Edited Wednesday at 07:19 by Saint_clark

[Farmer Saint]

1 minute ago, Saint_clark said:

2 goals and 3 assists in 763 minutes on the pitch. Far better return per minute played than anyone in our squad. 

He's playing with better players, under better managers.

But yes, he's better than our Championship level players.

Edited Wednesday at 07:21 by Farmer Saint

[Lighthouse]

15 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Wow. In all my years of posting on this forum and its predecessors, I don't think I've ever encountered such a blatant and, frankly, ridiculous straw man argument as this one. 

Clearly I'm being facetious but you don't actually have an explanation as to why nobody in Europe wanted CA and he ended up back in South America.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

 However, if you believe Russell Martin holds dominion over all of football and ordered every sporting director in Europe not to sign Alcaraz last summer, then I'll have to disagree on that.

Morning news...

Next series of Doctor Who to be extended.

"Budgets are really tight, and we needed a direction," said showrunner Echo Betterdays. "But that Giant Strawman turning up has not only slashed the need for CGI, but given us a villain for a 6 part series. We're in talks with MLG to play the scientist who fails to identify it and misuses it in his lust for power."

[austsaint]

10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

You can blame RM for Alcaraz going missing in games, struggling with the pace and giving the ball away a lot if you want. You can blame RM for the fact that he contributed fewer goals in a similar role to the thoroughly mediocre Joe Rothwell. You can believe that a team which scored 91 goals in 49 games, despite the main striker being injured all season and scoring 0, stifled midfield creativity and didn't allow him to play.

That's all fine, I'm not going to dispute it. However, if you believe Russell Martin holds dominion over all of football and ordered every sporting director in Europe not to sign Alcaraz last summer, then I'll have to disagree on that.

What I believe to be true is that Martin couldn’t wait to bin a young, talented midfielder like Alcaraz off in favour of a not so talented midfielder named Smallbone who Martin described as making him very happy whenever he was on the pitch.   That told me everything about Martin’s judgement concerning recruitment and retention of players.

[Saint_clark]

2 minutes ago, austsaint said:

What I believe to be true is that Martin couldn’t wait to bin a young, talented midfielder like Alcaraz off in favour of a not so talented midfielder named Smallbone who Martin described as making him very happy whenever he was on the pitch.   That told me everything about Martin’s judgement concerning recruitment and retention of players.

Yeah, any argument against Alcaraz falls down when you consider we played Smallbone instead the last two seasons. 

[Saint_clark]

16 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

He's playing with better players, under better managers.

But yes, he's better than our Championship level players.

So you agree we should have kept him and would be better having him in our team now? 😉 

[Sheaf Saint]

8 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Clearly I'm being facetious but you don't actually have an explanation as to why nobody in Europe wanted CA and he ended up back in South America.

No. There are numerous possible reasons for that which I'm not going to speculate on.

But that doesn't negate the fact that he's clearly a better player than his limited performances in the Championship last season suggest, and could have been a useful part of our attack in the season just gone if utilised correctly.

Do you agree with that? Or are you just going to do your usual thing of adopting a contrarian view just for the sake of it?

[Dman]

23 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Clearly I'm being facetious but you don't actually have an explanation as to why nobody in Europe wanted CA and he ended up back in South America.

He went back to South America for what, 6 months? 

[Give it to Ron]

25 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Clearly I'm being facetious but you don't actually have an explanation as to why nobody in Europe wanted CA and he ended up back in South America.

So why have Everton and Moyes that useless manager just bought him for the premiership if he is that bad?

[skintsaint]

2 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

So why have Everton and Moyes that useless manager just bought him for the premiership if he is that bad?

He isn't bad, just average and not a player I miss. Had his moments but not too many of them.

[Lighthouse]

7 minutes ago, austsaint said:

What I believe to be true is that Martin couldn’t wait to bin a young, talented midfielder like Alcaraz off in favour of a not so talented midfielder named Smallbone who Martin described as making him very happy whenever he was on the pitch.   That told me everything about Martin’s judgement concerning recruitment and retention of players.

Martin managed to extract fairly decent CM/AM performances from Smallbone, Fraser, Aribo, Stu Armstrong, Brooks, Downes and Rothwell but you want to believe he held a special hatred for 'talented midfielders'? 

4 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Yeah, any argument against Alcaraz falls down when you consider we played Smallbone instead the last two seasons. 

Will Smallbone keeping him our of the team is not the slam dunk argument in favour of Alcaraz that you think it is. I went to and watched a lot of games, Smallbone played better than Alcaraz. He just did.

2 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

No. There are numerous possible reasons for that which I'm not going to speculate on.

But that doesn't negate the fact that he's clearly a better player than his limited performances in the Championship last season suggest, and could have been a useful part of our attack in the season just gone if utilised correctly.

Do you agree with that? Or are you just going to do your usual thing of adopting a contrarian view just for the sake of it?

So you don't have an explanation. That's fine but however you want to dress it up, nobody in Europe wanted him.

I don't agree with your statement at all, he made less positive impact on our team last year than Ryan Fraser. People are getting way too excited about four goals in half a season under Selles. I can at least full explain my 'usual contrarian views' rather than simply bailing out on a pretty fundamental issue which you're 'not going to speculate on'.

[Lighthouse]

4 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

So why have Everton and Moyes that useless manager just bought him for the premiership if he is that bad?

Because he's cheap and Everton have limited money.

[Saint_clark]

22 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Will Smallbone keeping him our of the team is not the slam dunk argument in favour of Alcaraz that you think it is. I went to and watched a lot of games, Smallbone played better than Alcaraz. He just did.

 

🤦🏼‍♂️

[austsaint]

26 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Because he's cheap and Everton have limited money.

As a judge of players, you make an excellent Administrator.   Perhaps you should do more administrating?

[Fabrice29]

21 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

🤦🏼‍♂️

I’m not sure how anyone can argue Smallbone wasn’t decent for us in the Championship last season. Same with Aribo. We didn’t need an under performing Alcaraz and didn’t need to find a way to cater for him. It’s perfectly okay for players to go on and do well at other clubs, 3 clubs later, but it doesn’t mean it renders everything we did in the Championship as shit. The lad also had the option to go to Juventus that January, hardly going to be competing with that even if he’d played every week. 

Player doing okay at a club 3 clubs after playing for us isn’t news unless it’s an opportunity to have a dig at Russell Martin. Much more of a reflection of our recruitment.

He’s not as good as Fernandes so I’m not even sure where you would fit him in necessarily. He wouldn’t be competing with Downes or Uguchukwu so maybe as an attacking option? Sure. If you had told me we’d end the season with Onuachu and Sulemana back in the team, Armstrong not at the club and we hadn’t replaced Adams with anyone particularly effective then yes, I’d have said can we at least keep Alcaraz. But I suspect, like our manager, we all hoped our recruitment would was going to work out a little better than that when he was sold permanently (which funded Ramsdale btw). 

[Farmer Saint]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

So you agree we should have kept him and would be better having him in our team now? 😉 

No, I don't think he'd do well in the Championship

[Lord Duckhunter]

3 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

Because he's cheap and Everton have limited money.

Whereas we were so loaded we could bin him off & sign all those expensive quality replacements.

If our squad was so strong in the championship that he wasn’t worth keeping, perhaps Lego should have won the league….. Still what does Davy Moyes know about modern management? 

[pimpin4rizeal]

Think the anti alcaraz arguments mostly come from the Martin fanboys that try to agree with eveything he did in the same way people tried to defend bazunu with passing stats .. some posters like to always think the manager knows best ..then get stuck in the stance 

martin tended to freeze out the foreign players a lot more too as we saw with sulemana and onuachu also 

Edited Wednesday at 16:02 by pimpin4rizeal

[S-Clarke]

He was poorly used by Martin, he should have been a standout in the Championship - and he would have been if he was allowed. He's a maverick type of player, he does things off the cuff so you need to give him freedom - but Martin hated that, he wasn't rigid enough for his propoganda backwards passing, so he was never really given a true opportunity. In many ways it's why players like Brooks even struggled with us, such a talented technical player, but another one who does things off the cuff and needs to be allowed freedom. Martin even managed to mute the game out of him, he's looked good for Bournemouth this season in the league above.

Very similar story of Charles too in that Championship season, two very good players who have proven since that they are very good players, just used terribly by a manager who's idea of squad management was entirely skewed.

[Whitey Grandad]

16 hours ago, Fabrice29 said:

Shackled by having to pass the ball to his team mates 🤣

Now you're being childish. 

"Shackled by having to pass backwards" would perhaps more realistic. 

[Whitey Grandad]

16 hours ago, Farmer Saint said:

Alcaraz is bang average, and forever will be so. He's another in a long line that can have incredible moments, but they are too few and far between. For other examples please see:

Boufal, Sofiane

Ramirez, Gaston

Redmond, Nathan

Fernandes, Fabrice

et al

"Please see"

Yes please.

[Saint86]

15 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Think the anti alcaraz arguments mostly come from the Martin fanboys that try to agree with eveything he did in the same way people tried to defend bazunu with passing stats .. some posters like to always think the manager knows best ..then get stuck in the stance 

martin tended to freeze out the foreign players a lot more too as we saw with sulemana and onuachu also 

Alcaraz didn't suit our system, but that was Martin's fault frankly. He was one of our most talented and dangerous players, but Martin was too inflexible to be able to utilise him.

As an aside, just imagined Le Tissier being coached by Martin, and i think its safe to say he wouldn't have become the legend he was from the bench and being told to pass the ball backwards all the time.

Edited Thursday at 07:44 by Saint86