It’s like those movies in which the first scene anticipates the end: it kills some charm but still makes you want to stay so you don’t miss the details … so you don’t end the illusion so soon. At the end of the day, it is already paid: why not stay and, who knows, maybe be surprised …
Ok, it doesn’t sound motivating. But there is no other alternative. It is the James Rodríguez film, whose first scene anticipated the end: Rafa Benítez was appointed Everton coach, replacing Carlo Ancelotti, and he no longer needed to be told anything else. He went out looking for equipment, but as much as he offered and tried, he could not find one that would pay the salary he receives at Goodison Park.
Without going into analyzing if it was the injuries, the bad press, the detail of not knowing the match schedule of his own team, Twitch, one or all the reasons together, the truth is that he stays and at least until January, when you can negotiate as a free agent, there is no other way to endure … and in the process, seduce. Yes, Benítez himself.
It must be said that the Everton to which the left-hander arrived a year ago was a boat full of dreams designed for him, for his talent and influence, by the hand of the always unconditional Ancelotti. But he was shipwrecked due to physical problems that ended in the intermittency of number 19 and was left on the sidelines due, to a large extent, to his low efficiency in attack.
That is what Benítez saw as weakness and there he pointed in the transfer market: Andros Townsend, Demarai Gray and, at the last moment, Salomon Rondón (whom he directed and gave him confidence in China), arrived to complete, and from step put pressure on the immovable Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison. It gives all the feeling of being a team of athletes, something like Zidane’s Madrid or Kovac’s Bayern, in which James did not stand out.
But a small light remains: not all rivals are going to play the same and James has already shown, against the tough Manchester United or Tottenham, that when they give him space, he is a magician filtering passes or even reaching goal position. In addition, a midfielder with his ability did not arrive between the reinforcements and Sigurdsson, his direct competition with Ancelotti, remains on the sidelines of the squad, apparently due to a legal problem. The worst that can happen is that it is not enough in the eyes of the distrustful Benítez, but he already knows that today, so he has not lost anything. Everything that can scratch on the court will already be profit.
James and his manager know that this was not the ideal scenario, but that it could happen in such a volatile market. Now both have only one truth left: Everton. The good of the team, the goal of returning to European competitions, has to be above the ego and the grudges of both.
It is useless for the left-hander to stay without competing for four months, and the bill for the absence in the Colombian National Team is too high and it will not open markets in winter if it is not playing and using the showcase to its advantage. And the DT cannot keep the most expensive player on the squad seated forever, they will not allow him on the board because they know that it is money that is staked and that it will be needed in this and in future market windows. Everyone wants it to work. In the end, that’s what they get paid for. So get to work!
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