Graham Carr

[Scotty66]

He's a scout with hundreds of connections. Rafa knows what he's doing so not a bad thing that he stays.

 

Any more dodgy loan signings though and he can get to fuck

[Mick]

They might strip him of any powers he had in the hope that he'll walk away without a pay-off.

[thomas]

Strike one, Rafa.

[midds]

Given that Benitez has signed on then I'm thinking that he's fine with fairly big footballing decisions like this. I'd imagine this was one of the things that Rafa is cool with and if he's ok with it then so am I. Feels very unnerving but I'm happy to place my trust in the bloke 100%.

[Ronaldo]

He can 'spot a player' my left nut, like. Fucking Stifler from here could've recommended Cabaye and Ben Arfa. Every time his scouting abilities have actually been put to the test we've signed utter rubbish or players not right for the PL.

[Vinny Green Balls]

poor Stifler

[oldtype]

He was never a scout in the football manager sense. He's a networker - he has connections with clubs that make it easier for us to sign players and connections with agents that make it easier to convince them to come. We probably never even get our foot in the door for the likes of Ben Arfa or Cabaye without Carr.

 

Obviously those connections are a double-edged sword and there's a valid criticism that by the end he was signing players that his mates wanted to send to us instead of players we actually needed, but identifying unknown talent was never his job to begin with.

[Dr Venkman]

Old bloke who's an NUFC fan and likes watching football; who's to say he ever wanted as much power as he seemingly ended up with? I only heard him interviewed once; he was entirely self deprecating. If you were in his position would you be happy to revert to scouting and watch players for Rafa? Maybe they've agreed to have equal say? Even so, if it's ok with Rafa then what's the issue?

[arnonel]

Like every player, I am willing to give Carr and all staff another chance under Rafa.

If his skill is connections, I am sure Rafa can use that to our advantage.

[Guest]

GC: 'Here's a player I've watched who we can buy for £x for £x a week. Can we afford him?'

LC: 'Yes/no, Rafa, do you want us to get him?'

RB: 'Yes/no.'

 

Should be straightforward and how it should have been from the beginning.

[Hughesy]

In fairness, there have been quite a few articles over the years that have said Carr has recommended a series of very good players and we haven't gone out and got them and ended up with players some way down his list.

[High Five o]

Have no issue with Carr being on board.

 

I think its hard to judge his track record as i am lead to believe the power at NUFC have not been picking his top picks, but went far down the list for the cheapest options.

 

I think he can be a good asset to Rafa, in a environment where the manager has the final say in transfers.

[Guest chopey]

The staff at the club that were here under "The King" will be permenantly tainted with his stench, even if some of them were doing a good job, I fully expect to see Carver and Stone as stewards next season showing Japanese tourists to their seats.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

He's a scout, actually more of a contract value spotter. If Rafa feels it's worth having him then I don't really care, the problem before was he was the only person in the organisation who knew anything about football.

[steve_69]

I'd wager that if Rafa had been given half of the so-called 'shit players' Carr has brought in, they'd have looked a lot less shit than they did under Pardew, Carver and McLaren.

 

That said, the final yes/no on whether a player joins or not should always rest with the manager since he's the one (in theory) with the master plan and ultimately needs players who will fit into that.  Hopefully from now on we'll see a more sensible approach that utilises a combination of Carr's contacts and Rafa's database, with Rafa having absolute final say over which players come through the door.  I can't imagine Rafa would've signed on the dotted line if that wasn't the case.

[Dave]

The about turn in here.

[ads]

The about turn in here.

 

Just trying to maintain the positivity from yesterday I guess.

 

My take is that, if Rafa really wanted him gone, he would have gone. As mentioned above, I'm sure Rafa will find a way to use Carr's contacts to his advantage.

[Interpolic]

The interview with him on the first page of this thread is pretty funny, the main priority at that stage was apparently a nippy striker who could play off the shoulder. If my timings are right I think we chose Gouffran.

[Guest neesy111]

He's fucking useless and that won't change Rafa or not.

[Mole_Toonfan]

He can 'spot a player' my left nut, like. f***ing Stifler from here could've recommended Cabaye and Ben Arfa. Every time his scouting abilities have actually been put to the test we've signed utter rubbish or players not right for the PL.

 

Except hardly any of us knew who Cabaye was when we signed him and don't lie.

 

I mean any scout who watched him probably would have noticed him but please not let's act like he was a world renowned name.

 

There's been plenty of other great players like Aubameyang among others that he advised we get but Ashley never put the cash down.

 

Sure there's been a lot of duds but let's not act like the only good players he's put forward to the club have been Cabaye or Ben Arfa.

[HawK]

I think HBA scouted himself tbf

[Mole_Toonfan]

Aye I don't give him credit for HBA, any nutcase could have seen that one.

[Toondave]

Think it's rather difficult to judge him without knowing exactly what say he has had, or what weighting he's put on the players we've ended up signing. I think it's pretty clear he's ended up in a role not best suited to him however but that seems to have been reverted now?

 

If Rafa is okay with what he's doing, and has the ultimate say, then let's go with it.

[junkhead]

He deserves his 8 year contract just for giving us the opportunity to w*** over Ben Arfa's genuis. At the same time the Cabella and Thauvin deals and subsequent loans were dodgy as f***. It's like he acted on behalf of agents and Marseille. And let's not get into the Doumbia and Ferreyra loans.. Still I have no problem with him staying on as long as it's Benitez having the final say.

 

 

[BlueStar]

Think it's rather difficult to judge him without knowing exactly what say he has had, or what weighting he's put on the players we've ended up signing.

 

Wasn't there a report saying he'd offered his resignation, but it was refused on the grounds that we hadn't manage to buy any of his first choice targets?