Didn't he score 4 gosls in about a dozen games last time we were in the prem, in an awful team as well - that wasn't the idea of Charly that was the reailty of Charly. We certainly don't have that sort of firepower from the midfield currently. I agree it is odd why other clubs aren't in for him but Flamengo are hardly small - i guess time will tell. Maybe he will disappear into oblivion or maybe he will be back in Europe in 3yrs.
Of course, with this lad they may lead to an attempt on target. I’m sure he will be good anyhow, once he gets up to speed with how Martin wants us to play…
Not Saints related but just saw that Charlie Patino has moved to Deportivo La Corona for £1m. Always thought he was highly rated and seem to recall him doing well out on loan at Blackpool a year or so ago, so seems a bit of an odd one in terms of such a low fee.
13 starts and five sub appearances. Only Che (five) and JWP (nine) scored more than those four goals by Charly, and they both played significantly more matches. It's also the same number of PL goals which Archer scored last season - and he too played more games.
Can we replace the quality that Alcaraz has with the money that he is bringing in? Very unlikely. We’d have to unearth a gem. This market is ****ed and our track record is poor. What happens if we do a Derby this season, are we sticking with RM regardless of how bad we do? I get that nobody else seems to have come in for him, but for that price keep him then. If he got a run of games with a manager that believes in him and if he performs anything like he did in his first 6 months suddenly there would be interest in him and his price rises again. I think criticism of him not lighting the world on fire since that 1/2 a PL season is harsh considering he’s not had a run of games since. None of that is relevant if we are sticking with RM regardless of how badly we do. If we are, fine…I can then dislike but accept this deal. But if we are sat here in January and have just sacked RM then it will just be another in a long list of batshit decisions by the people that run our club.
Sort of agree with this, but at the same time if we are backing Martin and trying to give him every chance to succeed then we need to give him some additional players who can play his style at PL level (or we think they can any way). If we chose to keep Alcaraz because he might do well under the next manager then we may as well just sack Martin now and bring in a manager who will utilise Alcaraz. As much as I don’t like Martin or his football the club have clearly made a statement that they do like him so they have to back him and the only way that seems possible is to raise money through selling Alcaraz If Martin is still useless and we are doing a Derby and he is sacked then at least we can say we did everything we could to build a squad for him by raising money from selling players like Alcaraz. If we don’t we are just setting Martin up to fail
Yeah I assume this is what was meant. Or rather - no more fitting Stephens in at all. Regardless of formation
I think he needs to be in an environment and culture he is familiar with where he only has to concentrate on playing football, he is a young lad and maybe in a few years he will come back to Europe and be the star we all think he has the potential to be.
Yeah that’s a fair response. Albeit, I don’t think the funds from selling Alcaraz for this price will make much difference in our ability to put up a fight in staying up. We’ve spent a fair amount of money so far so don’t think you’d be able to say we haven’t backed him regardless. It’s just the market is so expensive and we had/have so much business to do to try and catch up to the existing PL teams that despite spending £80m (or whatever number it is) so far, our first team is still very Championship.
I agree with some of this but how can you say if Martin is still useless? He just took us 25 unbeaten and got us promoted whilst giving us an incredible day at Wembley. Have we just forgotten about last season already and are now judging solely off of the first 2 games when the window isn't even shut?
It’s almost like we’ve somehow convinced ourselves he is loads better than he actually is. It wouldn’t be the first time a fanbase has done that with a player. Ours or any others
Arsenal might be the only club worse than us at getting transfer fees for unwanted players. Well - Arsenal and Man United. Unwanted Liverpool players go for fortunes. Unwanted players from the other two go for next to nothing or just stay. Guess it’s a wage thing
We'll have to coach him out of running forward with the ball and occasionally losing it though. Can't be having that when there's simple 5 yard passes to be made.
I’m suspicious that his camp have been privately briefing that his preference was to go back to South America too, given the total lack of interest from Europe. Think this fee would be the 2nd/3rd highest fee any Brazilian club has ever paid
To be fair, he has an extremely high ceiling. I think he could genuinely be a worldy. Gives me similar vibes to Bale.
