LFEE

Wonder what Villa's wage bill is. They went big last summer then in January and looking like it again this window but I don't really hear of anyone leaving of note.

It's hilarious reading everyone's comments early on in this thread

Regarding the Sky Channel split for their football courage. Premier League football on one channel. EFL & La Liga on another.

A work colleague is a close relation to Roberts. Spoke to him today and he thought it was a no brainer taking the £6m. Claimed he can't recall him standing out but rated his brother who's a LB. Didn't rate Armstrong for the record. True story kids

I'm with you Yorkie When HBA finally got 10 I was much happier.

Guessing 4-5pm.

Can see him rolling up here.

Hopefully you'll find the answer in that book I lent you.

On loan from Real Madrid if I recall.

He was decent for them last season, helped them to get into the CL qualifying round. Could explode at any point still. So like I said. Average decent ˈdiːs(ə)nt/ adjective 1. conforming with generally accepted standards of respectable or moral behaviour. "a decent clean-living individual" 2. of an acceptable standard; satisfactory. "people need decent homes" synonyms: satisfactory, reasonable, fair, acceptable, adequate, sufficient, sufficiently good, good enough, ample, up to scratch, up to the mark, up to standard, up to par, competent, not bad, all right, average, tolerable, passable, suitable; informalOK, okay, up to snuff

People still thinking Balotelli is anything other than average?

This. People are confusing two different arguments. Hopefully in the future the club is run in a way a local player wouldn't contemplate moving.

Or how about we try to convince him staying at NUFC would be best for him? Or maybe it will set the opposite example with potential school boys who see us as a club who will keep you regardless of your wishes and risk ruining your development - leading them to sign for the someone else from day one. I think that is complete utter s****. NUFC have invested thousands of pounds into him, if other graduates see that NUFC genuinely want their youngsters to succeed and go to the first team it will make them want to stay and try to make the grade into the first team. It's gotta be a two way thing though. The player has to want to stay and I'm guessing at this age the player's parents have to also.

https://twitter.com/nufc_jay17/status/887774151410421761

What everyone is forgetting is the lad is refusing to sign pro forms with us if I'm following the story correctly therefore it's somewhat out our hands.

I would sign him now and loan him back to Norwich if they were interested in that deal. This is a better idea than mine. Burra have bid for Josh apparently. £4m I believe. Let's gazump them

Nice montage but would've been better with the correct goal clips.

Tim Vickery saying Diego Rolan would be a good fit for us. Rated him quite highly also.

Was it just an accidental slip of the tongue or are we signing his brother also?

The £140k a week will have something to do with it. Maybe, but the low fee negates any need to worry about that imo. It would only work out as an extra 5 million on a 3 year contract. All true but if you're anyone else you're asking for a payrise as soon as he arrives. This.

There's a player in there somewhere. Not sure what level yet but you only have to see how he takes his goals that there is a goal talent there. Would suite a counterattacking team possibly.

Nah McCarthy is actually a very good midfielder defensively. He tends to hide when his team is in possession though, never seems to want a pass, even though he is decent technically so perhaps that could be worked on. Clucas from what I saw wasn't great defensively but was always making himself an option for a pass off the ball Eamonn Dunphy in the Irish media called him a waste of space and all but suggested he'd conspired to get his manager (Martinez) sacked. Even if there's a snippet of truth in that I'd stay well clear Eamonn Dunphy makes a living from talking and writing s*** I absolutely love him but he really doesn't have a clue. Martinez loved McCarthy This. Martinez's Everton with McCarthy in it were excellent by and large. It was only when he was out injured for a while that the wheels come off. Everton fans I speak to say the reason the wheels fell off was because Martinez was useless and couldn't organise a defence for love or money. McCarthy is a good player though. They weren't saying that when McCarthy was in the team and they were fighting for top four. It was when he got injured in his second season and they were defensively more open that the criticism was levelled at Martinez. Fairly so to some level but I seem to recall he lost Baines and Jagielka to various medium term injuries whilst Mori's was adjusting to life in the league also which compounded his demise there. This is total rubbish tbh mate. Martinez is a terrible manager, ridiculously stubborn and arrogant in sticking with the same rigid tactics that do not work. Completely incapable of coaching a defence or organising a team. He didn't even practice attacking or defending set pieces in training, which was blatantly obvious on the pitch. His first season was a success because he inherited Moyes' defence which was rock solid and had been one of the best in the league for donkeys years. Within 12 months he had completely ruined it and we were a farce at the back. His downfall was nothing to do with McCarthy or injuries. As for McCarthy, he's not much of a passer and doesn't get forward enough when the game opens up for him but he can be excellent at breaking up play and has a good engine. He was really good for us in his first season. Second and third seasons he was rubbish whenever he played between injuries. Last season, he struggled with injuries again but was good when he played. Seemed to regain his form under Koeman. He'd be good to keep as a back-up/rotation player but is probably too valuable not to cash in on and he earns about 50k a week. Something Newcastle fans will have to get used to if you sign McCarthy is the whole Irish circus. O'Neill and Keane have rushed him back from injury two or three times now, causing him to break down again. When Koeman complains about this, they then slag Everton off in the media. The good thing about selling him would be never having to read another article about the latest nonsense from that pair of pricks. When you say rubbish you mean non of this happened? Everton fans happy with Martinez 1st season not the 2nd. Played with attacking flair to achieve 5th. McCarthy along with that back four was vital to Martinez's team that first season and they were missed when injured. I never said it was Martinez's defence. I never said he could organise one or adapt without key players missing hence stating the criticism of him was justified at times. I never said McCarthy was a great forward passer. You agreed he was good first season and not the same since injury. Starting to think you meant to reply to someone else First two paragraphs replying to you. Second two just talking generally about McCarthy, maybe would have been better in a separate post tbf. Defending Martinez's abilities and making McCarthy's form out to be instrumental in his downfall is what I was calling rubbish. Because it is. Obviously fans were happy when we finished 5th We thought Martinez was a good manager because of that. Within 6 months it was apparent that he wasn't and had got lucky inheriting a great defence. He tweaked Moyes' team to make us a bit more attacking in the first season and it worked well (went from 6th to 5th). Following seasons we had the worst joke of a defence in the league, despite having plenty of good players. We didn't even play decent football going forward in those seasons either. It was boring tippy tappy sideways stuff that went nowhere for the most part. There were no mitigating circumstances for Martinez's failure. It was purely down to his arrogant delusions that he was another Guardiola and that defending doesn't matter. I thought as much I wasn't trying to defend his abilities as I agree with his particular defensive shortfalls. I was highlighting how when certain key players are missing it threw his attacking tactics out of balance in particular McCarthy who the discussion is about. He tinkered because he never could replace him and every time he came back it was too early and never fit or possibly even the same player which yourself alluded to. Somehow you've wanted to make this more about Martinez tenure at Everton which I wasn't. I just think McCarthy played a big part of the success of his first season as manager and if he along with the back four had of stayed fit I think you would've had a better second season then you ended up having. So I'm not endorsing Martinez. I'm simply saying the cristiscm was too far the other way as had the plaudits been the previous season. In many respects you could see parallels with Ranieri and Leicester. Built on back 4 foundations of previous regime. Inserted Kante. Stuck to a formula. Next season back 4 picked up injuries. Sold Kante. Tinkered. Anyway... Rafa looks to have his eyes elsewhere http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/rafa-benitez-james-mccarthy-everton-13352565

Who's quote is it? Rafa's from his interview... http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/rafa-benitez-james-mccarthy-everton-13352565

Hmm, would be a lot more optimistic of him going and/or getting that fee, had they (or any club) approached us for him. Surely it doesn't give the selling club a position of strength in a deal, when you/the agent is touting the player around? All that happens is NUFC say to his agent if you can find him a club do so and that's his price. The agent obviously aware Lyon looking for a possible CF has went to them and asked if they'd be interested. There's your story.