QuoteI still think Everton would be the ideal destination for me. Him and Gibbo in the middle... Nom.
Linked, more realistically, with Newcastle here. The article also pours a bit of cold water on the Manchester United link.
http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/ne...1634-33263561/
I still think Everton would be the ideal destination for me. Him and Gibbo in the middle... Nom.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
I would agree that Everton would be a great destination for him. A very good competent team with some very good players and a good core of Irish players as well. He would massively improve them and if they keep their team and David Moyes and make a few more astute signings, they could make the Champions League next year.
I think Liverpool and Arsenal would be good moves for him also. He is the closest thing I have seen to a young Steven Gerrard, even if the way Wigan have him lining up, he isn't given the freedom to be as dynamic as Gerrard was at his age. I actually think Rodgers is going to do a good job for Liverpool. Arsenal would be a great move for him also.
I think personally he would make the United team. I think he is a far better player than Carrick and I have seeb nothing in any of the other United midfielders that would make me worry for James making the team. Fergie likes to have a core of British/Irish players and I think he is aiming to build another great United team before he retires. McCarthy is definitely good enough to be part of that.
City and Chelsea would be bad choices for him. Both are more likely to bring in an established world class player and James really needs game time to continue developing.
I'm not sure McCarthy has the natural aggression to be compared to Steven Gerrard, but he could prove me wrong. Personalitee, as Trap puts it.
More rumours, at least it keeps us interested! And you would have to feel sorry for Robbie.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-29246585.html
Last edited by gastric; 07/05/2013 at 8:15 AM.
I think even if Wigan stay up it would be the right time in his career to take the next step and move to a bigger club.
Lets talk about six baby
Independent (the UK paper - Jack Pitt-Brooke is a young writer there and is a guy I really rate) has a feature on young James here.
Chelsea and Arsenal considering summer transfer swoop for Wigan midfielder James McCarthy
Youngster has held Wigan's midfield together during another turbulent season to the extent that some of the league's leading clubs are interested
Jack Pitt-Brooke Tuesday 07 May 2013
Such has been James McCarthy's form this season – for a faltering and once again belatedly awakened Wigan Athletic – both Chelsea and Arsenal are considering a summer move for the midfielder.
The 22-year-old is currently trying to direct yet another escape from relegation, in which victory on Tuesday night against Swansea City would be crucial. His bravery, skill and vision in three consecutive relegation battles have been noticed and whether Wigan survive or finally drop, there is certain to be a fight for his signature this summer.
McCarthy, yet again one of Wigan's most impressive and consistent performers in a turbulent season, is thought to be open to the possibility of a summer move for the sake of his career, but is not necessarily desperate to leave yet. Should Wigan go down, though, it is implausible that he should play Championship football next season.
There are few midfields in the country that would not be improved by the Republic of Ireland international. In an age of specialists he is a genuine all-rounder, who would add authority where it is lacking at Stamford Bridge and bite where it is missed at the Emirates. He may even prefer a less high-profile club, in the interests of playing more games, as he did in choosing to sign for Wigan in 2009.
But there is a sense that, after four years at the DW Stadium, now might be the time to take the next step and move up, especially given the climactic finish Wigan have this season, with their crucial game tonight, their FA Cup final against Manchester City on Saturday and then league games against Arsenal and Aston Villa left to save themselves.
Those who know McCarthy well feel this too. Billy Reid, who gave McCarthy his Hamilton Academical debut at the age of just 15, told The Independent McCarthy can go on to a team at the opposite end of the table. "I still don't think he's realised his potential yet," Reid said, "that's no disrespect to Wigan, I think he can go and play for one of the top teams in England."
The former Republic of Ireland international Ray Houghton, an old friend of McCarthy's family, also from the Castlemilk district of Glasgow, agrees. "He's at a good age now," he told The Independent, "he's probably at a stage now where he might need to move on to improve."
The impressive thing is just how much McCarthy has improved already. He has grown, under the tutelage of Roberto Martinez, into a remarkably complete midfielder. Martinez insists on a very high technical and tactical level from his players, but McCarthy has the brain as well as the touch required to run their midfield.
McCarthy is beautifully balanced, able to pass incisively with either foot and seemingly able to see through the holes of his ears. He is also a ferocious worker, able to call every part of the pitch his own, and a great tracker and marker, as he showed against Tottenham's Gareth Bale last week.
That talent has never been in doubt. It is the growth of McCarthy's confidence and assurance that has made the difference. "James has good qualities," the Ireland manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, memorably said earlier this season, "but I have told him 'I will punch you if you don't stop being shy.'" McCarthy has just broken into the Republic of Ireland side but could bring their midfield a nuance they have desperately lacked recently.
It has been a long journey for McCarthy already. He had brief unsuccessful spells as a boy at Celtic and Livingston but was back playing boys' club football at 14 before Hamilton's scouts first saw him.
"When I watched him for the first time I couldn't believe what I'd seen," Reid, then Hamilton manager, remembered. "He just had everything: he had balance, two-footed, he could cover the ground, he was a winner. I asked to speak to his mother and father straight away, we asked to get him off school and get him into training, and the rest is history."
Reid gave McCarthy his Hamilton debut at 15, against Queen of the South in the Scottish First Division. In his second season Hamilton won the title and were promoted; in his next, in the Scottish Premier League, he won Young Player of the Year.
"He never missed a minute for me," Reid said. "He played every game. I used think about moving him about but you couldn't leave him out of the team, all the way through from 15. He was so good at that level. He was just a model of consistency."
Those performances were soon noticed by big clubs in Scotland and England. But a teenage McCarthy rejected moves to Celtic, Liverpool and Reading to continue his development at Hamilton. Eventually he moved, in 2009, to Wigan Athletic, in Martinez's first summer in charge. Martinez's assistant, Graeme Jones, used to work at Hamilton.
The move to Wigan was difficult at first, and the 18-year-old McCarthy struggled on debut, in a 4-1 Carling Cup defeat at Blackpool. He was given a few months out of the team to develop, then Martinez brought him back in January 2010 and he has played fairly consistently since, taking on more and more responsibility to the point where few midfielders in the country carry as much on their shoulders.
Liverpool have since tried again to tempt him from Wigan, but again he stayed. Scouts from a host of Premier League clubs are routinely at the DW Stadium, looking at the quiet young man in the middle of midfield. He has other immediate concerns, but the attention will not go away.
Wigan wizard: McCcarthy facts
19: Age at which McCarthy made his Republic of Ireland debut against Brazil in February 2010
87.7 per cent Pass completion rate in the Premier League this season
£10,700: Cost per league game to Wigan, having made 112 appearances since his £1.2m move from Hamilton
I really think James can become a top player in the coming years. We have alot of players that fill me with hope, but Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy are two names I can see playing for the very best teams in the coming years. I also like that both seem to have grown not just as players, but as men in the past year and seem more vocal on the pitch. James could be an Irish captain for the next campaign.
Just scored a super goal V Swansea. Great run forward, nice first touch, and cooly slotted passed the onrushing keeper. Class act
Just scored a good goal to put Wigan 2-1 up. He's got a lovely casualness about him, although he was a little too casual on one occasion just before his goal.
GOAL- Wigan 2-1 Swansea - James McCarthy (53 mins)
You just can't keep them down. Wigan hit straight back as Gary Caldwell's perfectly calibrated pass into the path of James McCarthy is controlled first time and then drilled home with the Republic of Ireland midfielder's second touch.
Lost 3-2. Wigan still in with a chance if they can best Villa, one of the teams on 38 is likely to lose both games
which would see Wigan safe on goal difference.
Quite poor from Wigan this evening, one of the sloppiest games i've seen them play. I suppose Caldwell is just coming back from injury and drafted in on an emergency but he gifted Swansea's 2nd. The disease crept towards all the back 4 for Swansea's winner.
Apart from 2 poor passes, James was a cut above anybody else on that pitch. His touch, positioning and passing was sublime, maybe his quality was exaggerated by the sloppiness of the Wigan players around him. Swansea were a team there for the taking, if ever there was one.
Last edited by geysir; 07/05/2013 at 8:58 PM.
I wouldn't bet against Wigan pulling off their annual win in North London.Originally Posted by tricky_colour
I wouldn't bet on it happening but I'll be willing them on.
His goal reminded me of a young Roy Keane.
Horrendous stuff for the second and third Swansea goals, what a chance blown.
Certainly, anything is possible for them in end of season games.
There are going to a hell of a lot of anxious eyes watching them in their next game (which is Arsenal) willing them to lose,
but even then it could still go down to the last match.
Norwich are next favourites to go down but Newcastle would be best from an Ireland point of view.
Yeah I was hoping for Newcastle for a number of reasons 1) The Irish factor 2) The sacking of Hughton 3) The insane contracts they gave Pardew 4) Pardew himself and his general smarminess
Sunderland's GD is miles better than Wigan's so they're really just counting on Norwich and Newcastle losing both matches, unless they can pick up something at The Emirates three days after the FA Cup final with Arsenal needing a result. Sunderland, Newcastle and Norwich all have at least one game left where they'll really fancy their chances of winning as well, Southampton (h), QPR (a) and West Brom (h) respectively. I can't help feeling that Wigan have blown their chance at this stage.
Will be very interesting where James ends up playing next season, especially given this morning's news re Fergie. Fergie was definitely a fan and McCarthy would have been a very Fergie type of signing. Moyes is a fan also and you would have to say that he is likely to go for James, whether he stays at Everton or goes to United. Chelsea were linked heavily during the week, but who is buying him when we don't even know who their manager is for next season. Then again they did buy Schurrle for next season, so perhaps their new as of yet unknown manager wants James as well.
James would be terrific beside a fit Wilshere and is precisely what the Gunners need. Liverpool will need to think about a top replacement for Gerrard, as there is absolutely no way, he will play as many games next season as he has done this season. Who better than James for them? Finally, there is the Rafa factor. Rafa is supposed to be a massive fan of James, even going back to when he was on trial there at the age of 15 and Carra and Gerrard were literally badgering Rafa to sign him. James sensibly wanted to stay with Hamilton and work his way up the football ladder. If Rafa goes to a top continental club or replaces Mancini at City, then I reckon there's a good chance he'd sign James.
Anyhow, nice that for the first time in a while, we might have one of our players involved in major transfer news over the summer
I don't necessarily disagree with this but we heard all this before about Kevin Doyle when he was relegated with Wolves. Let's wait and see who is really interested rather than just paper talk.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
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