In April, I made the (obvious) prediction that Liverpool would soon be linked with a move for Reading star Alex McCarthy, the goalkeeper who put in an amazing performance against the Reds in recent Premier League draw at the Majdeski stadium. Inevitably, the Reds have since been heavily linked with a move for the gifted stopper, and according to team-mate Jem Karacen, McCarthy is worth a shedload of money.
McCarthy put in another excellent performance in Saturday's 4-2 win at Fulham and after the game, Karacen raved:
"He's amazing. You can see the top clubs knocking on the door.
"[He is worth] around 15 to £20million. You see how much young English players go for - there are some crazy sums out there.
"I don't see why he shouldn't be in that bracket. It would definitely take a lot of money to get him away from Reading"
£15-£20m for a goalkeeper with only 11 senior appearances? With respect, dream on! Yes, McCarthy is clearly a great talent, but (IMO) it would be financial negligence to risk that amount of cash on goalkeeper who is totally unproven across a whole season.
Reading boss Nigel Adkins seems to be coming around to the reality that McCarthy will end up leaving, and when asked about his future on Saturday, he hinted that Reading have enough 'keepers to compensatate for McCarthy's loss. He told reporters:
"We think we've got several good goalkeepers. Adam Federici was in goal last season, and we've got Stuart Taylor, Mikkel Andersen and a couple of good youngsters. From that point of view, we know how important it is and obviously we're pleased with Alex's form at Fulham."
Rodgers worked with McCarthy during his ill-fated six-month spell at Reading in 2009, and after watching him thwart Liverpool, he enthused:
"That's arguably the best goalkeeping performance I've ever seen. He's genuinely going to be a top, top keeper and to perform like that having been out for so long was absolutely staggering. He has all the attributes to be a top, top keeper - he's 6'5", makes unbelievable saves, is good on his feet and is very calm and assured despite being very young"
In his column for the Liverpool Daily Post last weel, Reds legend Mark Lawrenson urged the Reds to sign McCarthy:
"You wonder if Liverpool might take a little look at him. Rodgers will have known about him from his own time at the Madejski. At 23, he would fit the criteria of Fenway Sports Group. And Reading’s imminent relegation would presumably make it easier to lure the player away".
Last week, Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo claimed that Pepe Reina had agreed a 2-year deal with Barcelona, and if that's true, there's a massive vacancy between the sticks for Liverpool.
Could McCarthy fill the void...?
Jaimie Kanwar NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
McCarthy put in another excellent performance in Saturday's 4-2 win at Fulham and after the game, Karacen raved:
"He's amazing. You can see the top clubs knocking on the door.
"[He is worth] around 15 to £20million. You see how much young English players go for - there are some crazy sums out there.
"I don't see why he shouldn't be in that bracket. It would definitely take a lot of money to get him away from Reading"
£15-£20m for a goalkeeper with only 11 senior appearances? With respect, dream on! Yes, McCarthy is clearly a great talent, but (IMO) it would be financial negligence to risk that amount of cash on goalkeeper who is totally unproven across a whole season.
Reading boss Nigel Adkins seems to be coming around to the reality that McCarthy will end up leaving, and when asked about his future on Saturday, he hinted that Reading have enough 'keepers to compensatate for McCarthy's loss. He told reporters:
"We think we've got several good goalkeepers. Adam Federici was in goal last season, and we've got Stuart Taylor, Mikkel Andersen and a couple of good youngsters. From that point of view, we know how important it is and obviously we're pleased with Alex's form at Fulham."
Rodgers worked with McCarthy during his ill-fated six-month spell at Reading in 2009, and after watching him thwart Liverpool, he enthused:
"That's arguably the best goalkeeping performance I've ever seen. He's genuinely going to be a top, top keeper and to perform like that having been out for so long was absolutely staggering. He has all the attributes to be a top, top keeper - he's 6'5", makes unbelievable saves, is good on his feet and is very calm and assured despite being very young"
In his column for the Liverpool Daily Post last weel, Reds legend Mark Lawrenson urged the Reds to sign McCarthy:
"You wonder if Liverpool might take a little look at him. Rodgers will have known about him from his own time at the Madejski. At 23, he would fit the criteria of Fenway Sports Group. And Reading’s imminent relegation would presumably make it easier to lure the player away".
Last week, Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo claimed that Pepe Reina had agreed a 2-year deal with Barcelona, and if that's true, there's a massive vacancy between the sticks for Liverpool.
Could McCarthy fill the void...?
Jaimie Kanwar NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
All this praise is way ott. What I see is mostly us missing the target and his defenders bailing him out. Two decent saves near the end.
ReplyDeleteit seems the board are open to offers for almost any player, once they reach a certain age. after the talk of agger and martin s being sold last summer, we now see pepe and glen J being linked with moves away.
ReplyDeleteapparently pepe and glen want a new challenge, and if the offer's are good enough, it makes sense to let them go.
another 20/25m in the kitty, and yet more business that needs doing.
the reading keeper could be a good addition, alongside a more experienced signing should pepe leave.
personally, i would not be too worried should they be sold, provided the scouting team have some great targets in mind.
apparently the reason they left city is because they kept finding great mod and lower priced players, only city were not interested and kept going for obvious big names. i have faith in the city scouts.
have you not heard about FSG's policy? if not you are one of the few remaining men on earth who have not.
ReplyDeletei listen to insiders and trusted sources for this info. in fact it was on TAW that i heard about glen J being up for sale.
Havent seen enough of him to make a judgement to be honest and i doubt many people on this forum have either.
ReplyDeleteLOL.
ReplyDeleteOnly for the right price and only if Pepe is sold.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago Glen Johnson publicly stated that he learned Spanish using the Rosetta Stone software. Guess what. The media made his desire to move to Spain out of this. He still is with us years later, though. Now Johnson is trying to get a maths degree. Where will that move him. Any team known for maths?
ReplyDeleteGano1 I know why you laughing so hard this chap is CLUELESS!!!
ReplyDeleteTeams get relegated because they let in a lot of goals during the season.
ReplyDeleteWhen strikers aren't scoring, it can be because they are crap or just that they don't see much of the ball. When a team is leaking goals it's because the defence - back four and goalkeeper - aren't good enough.
Leave it a season and see how he's rated this time next year - he may be the next Joe Hart - another goalie who was hyped and has now been found out.
Very strong feeling this will not be the case.......
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we will see both starting for us next season. Which, by the way, means Reading can forget pricing McCarthy at ridiculous sums as we will still have Pepe.....
please share the link. hearsay?
ReplyDeleteLFC comes to mind. For bad maths that is. AC, CA, SD and JH are perfect examples . Though not their fault as players
ReplyDeleteClearly Jem is going to talk up his team mate & no he isn't worth £15 to£20m - another 5 yrs and England Caps and then maybe. Being a Reading Supporter and knowing us we shall probably accept about £5m - If Butland is worth £6m then no reason McCarthyisn't worth similar. He was great against Liverpool - but check him out against Swansea earlier in the season - he rarely makes errors and makes a lot of saves but then given our woeful defending he has too.....
ReplyDeleteListen to the anfield wrap. a sometimes good source of info and all things LFC.
ReplyDeleteif someone wants GJ and is willing to pay 15m, it fits with FSG's policy. there are better out there for under that money imo.
ReplyDeleteA good goal keeper is only as good as his defense.
ReplyDeletelol why is it that whenever Liverpool is linked to a player albeit by the media his price becomes inflated ,personally i he is worth £ 6-8 M .
ReplyDeleteI thought of something like the home-town club of Pythagoras, Thales or maybe even Adam Ries.
ReplyDeletetbh I dont think he is good enough regardless of price.
ReplyDeleteThe key here is LINKED. Just cause the media report links doesn`t mean the club tried to sell them. Going by most windows we have tried to sell every player and sign half the worlds players of you were really going to believe a link means its from the board
ReplyDeleteBecause we were mugs and signed Hendo, Carroll and Downing for fees that were out of this world. We set the tone ourselves that we are happy to pay about 10 to 15mil more than the player is worth. No one to blame but ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThing I never understood was FSG were meant to be smart with deals so they can make money off the player latter if he leaves. How did that work out that Hendo for 16mil was ever a good deal. He would have to turn into one of the best in the world to get that back. Same for Downing and Carroll. I mean Carroll would have to become the best striker in the world for us to get back the money. I can only assume that they left KK and DC alone with a big pot of cash. Even then I`m amazed anyone would do that, surely they still look at the cheques before signing them.
Gulliem Balague on Revista La Liga: "#LFC know that #Barca want Pepe Reina. They are prepared to let him go. 2yr deal"
ReplyDeleteWell if Fabio Borini is worth 10 mill then Mccarthy is definitely worth 20mill
ReplyDeleteBorini will come good. He can always find space is the box and knows how to score. I don't him being 1st choice, or 2nd or 3rd but a decent squad player.
ReplyDeleteGo for the next big thing Courtios french keeper or Ter-stegan if Pepe leaves for 15 -20 mil
ReplyDelete3 things:
ReplyDelete1) Jem's surname is Karacan. That's K-A-R-A-C-A-N. Not K-A-R-A-C-E-N.
2) You shouldn't take a team-mate's word as gospel for the price tag of his colleague.
3) We won't really want to sell him, so it will take a rather a lot of money to prise him away - therefore it's a sellers market, we can name whatever price we think will scare off suitors like you. So, if you don't want to pay £20m, then that's the price we'll ask, and you give up - we win!!! :-)
Sell Reina and bring in McCarthy. Almost like selling Torres and bringing in Carroll. FSG are clueless.
ReplyDeleteWould be a real shame if Pepe went.. but if he did why not get Cesar from Qpr and a Young backup ie McCarthy ?
ReplyDelete