This is what I said earlier in the thread: Two points on this. Firstly, the two-team Scottish media, both conventional and social are quite hilarious in the potential fees they attribute to outgoing players. Alfredo Morelos was touted as a £60m target for Real Madrid at one point which, for a player who appeared somewhat reluctant to walk past a Greggs without stopping was one of the funniest things I've seen in all my years up here. Secondly, I saw O'Riley quite a bit last year. Even his agent wouldn't think he was worth more than £20m. I'd be staggered if he went for more.
So glad he chose Serie A over Saudi Arabia. Restores one's faith in footballers a fraction. (Or maybe he just never actually received an offer). Hope he smashes it.
I’m glad he didn’t go to another PL side. He would strike fear in the hearts of our back line. He was ok, played for us in the Championship when he could have forced a move or thrown a strop, which is one thing. My feelings about him are fairly neutral on the whole though.
He was a decent striker for us overall. Think it’s more telling of the clubs recruitment than Adams ability that he’s been by far our best striker for a number of years. Be interesting to see how he gets on there. All the best Chele!
Never had a problem with him but it could be a good for both parties to move on, buona fortuna Che, hope your move is as successful as Nathan Tella's has been.
https://x.com/rees_julian/status/1815282521036206572?t=R1BuErf_hemK7AvxVuKpNA&s=19 Watch Russell go and sign Arron Ramsdale, either on loan or permanently, in the next couple of days! Lol
It seems insane that off the back of 4 or 5 good performances McCarthy can go from being kept out the team by Baz, who was making frequent mistakes and shipping easy goals, to our first choice in the Premier League. He was due to be let go after his contract expired but now suddenly he is 1st choice?
Hopeful it's just what he's got to say up until the point that we bring a new number 1 in. As you say, McCarthy was considered well past it and half way out the door. He wasn't even on the bench for most of the season. To come back in and do well for a few games at the end of the season does not suddenly make him good enough for the PL again. Actually batshit crazy if that happens and we don't sign a new no.1 (even just on loan for the season).
Maybe he's fed up of the weather in Scotland and wants to head South. You might even say he's a Sunseeker!
Agree - good player, but nothing special IMO. Martin knows him of course, but then he knew Manning too.
Personally I would have got rid of all our keepers and started again as I zero confidence in any of them. Apart from a goal scoring striker, the next most important is a quality keeper. We have had neither for a few years and loo’ what happened
There was a theory floating around that McCarthy had a clause in his contract that if he played x games in the final season then his contract renewed automatically for an additional year. Obviously hand was forced at the end of the season (plus he only played like 6 games or something which wasn’t enough to trigger the renewal) so maybe that is why we didn’t play him earlier when Bazunu was said to be struggling. It seems obvious that if McCarthy signed a new deal then he was given some assurances about being number 1, at least temporarily, otherwise he would’ve joined a bigger club to sit on the bench
Unfortunately we can't spend 20m on every position in the team. We've already spent 30m on CBs. 6m on Sugawara. 18m on Downes. We also need (more than a keeper imo): 1 x DM 1 x LW 1 x STR Only after we've splashed out on them, possibly 50-60m, would I say we should prioritise another goalkeeper.
