Can Lost Boy James Rodríguez break the mould at free-spending Everton?

Potential can be a curse. Show too much too early and it will define you, so you are measured not by what you have done but against the future that once seemed within your grasp. And when age finally takes its toll, when the world stops waiting for you to become what it seemed you once could be, when you are written off with a dismissive shrug as a could-have-been then, in England at least, there are really only two places you can go: West Ham or Everton.

They are populated by the Lost Boys of the global game. When the elite will take you no more, there will still be a place in these Neverlands, clubs who will pay the wages of a player at their notional peak, even as time saps at them and reduces their value, even as hunger is spent and the drift into retirement has become inevitable.

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Sensible economics dictate that clubs of Everton’s level should be picking up young players from Europe’s mid-ranking leagues and clubs – a 22-year-old midfielder from Augsburg, perhaps, a promising winger from Benfica or a rapid young defender from Metz – looking to develop them and selling them on at a profit three or four years later. But again and again the allure of players allowed to leave by the elite proves too great and so they end up with a squad populated by Theo Walcott, Moise Kean, Alex Iwobi, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Fabian Delph and Lucas Digne.

That’s not to say they are not good players. Kean, aged 20, and Iwobi, 24, have time on their side. It’s not to say they necessarily do not fit at Everton. It’s not to say they lack commitment. If they see Everton as a step down from where they were, well, what of it? A club such as Everton is always going to be a stepping-stone in one direction or the other; it will only rarely be a destination in itself. But it is to say they are expensive.

Everton’s finances are not in robust health. In 2018-19, they made a loss of £112m. As the Swiss Ramble Twitter feed showed, of the 20 wealthiest clubs in the world by revenue (Everton are 19th), none has a higher wages-to-turnover ratio than Everton’s 85%. Only three clubs in that list have a wages to turnover ratio above 65%. Everton are a huge outlier.

All convention would suggest there is need to trim the wage bill and offload some of the higher earners, to retrench as the pandemic gnaws at revenues, and yet money still appears to be available for signings, with Abdoulaye Doucouré, Allan and, the greatest of all the lost boys, James Rodríguez all having signed or being poised to sign.

It’s James who stands out. He exemplifies the dangers of what can happen when a club president sees a player during a major tournament and decides his brand must have him.

James had done well for Porto and Monaco. He was clearly a player of great promise. Then, aged 22, he scored a brilliant volley against Uruguay at the 2014 World Cup and finished as the tournament’s top scorer. Florentino Pérez was entranced and Real Madrid made James the fourth-most expensive signing in history at the time.

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The Colombian’s first season at the Bernabéu, under Carlo Ancelotti, was relatively good. James scored 13 goals and registered 13 assists. But injuries ate away at him. A fractured metatarsal required surgery. He suffered a persistent thigh problem.

Ancelotti left after a year and his replacement, Rafa Benítez, never seemed to trust James’s work rate or tactical discipline. He was loaned for two years to Bayern, then managed by Ancelotti. Again his first season showed glimmers of promise: seven goals and 11 assists, but Ancelotti was sacked at the end of the September and James became, whether fairly or not, an emblem of his regime and its perceived softness.

An option to buy was not taken up so James returned to Madrid, where Zinedine Zidane, who is as pragmatic as Benítez in his own way, found no place for him. As he hit his late 20s and what should be his peak, James, who six years ago seemed the most exciting prospect of his generation, has started 18 league games in two seasons.

Where else would he go but Everton? No accountant would sign him, a diminishing asset on high wages who has just turned 29, even if his initial fee is £20m. It makes zero financial sense. And yet, there must also be a sense of thrill. There were questions about the appointment of Ancelotti and his suitability for Everton that have not yet been answered, but this is a clear upside: he gives the club access to players such as James and Allan who probably wouldn’t give Everton a second thought were it not for the opportunity to play for a manager they have worked with before.

Only the dourest of grown-ups, one who has long since forgotten how to fly, could not be inspired by the prospect of Ancelotti reigniting James’s talent so that he plays out a glorious autumn to his career at Goodison. It’s an audacious signing, one that services a fundamental but frequently overlooked demand of a mid-table side: fun.

James may succeed gloriously or he may fail, but at least it will have been worth watching to find out. Certainly with Allan and Doucouré, this appears a much more dynamic Everton midfield than the narrow and slightly sterile variant put out by Ancelotti for much of the second half of last season.

All of which would be promising were it not for that wage bill. James feels like a gamble that is justifiable, welcome even, but Everton could probably do with a few more 22-year-old midfielders from Augsburg, promising wingers from Porto or rapid young defenders from Metz. And perhaps, at last, James can escape the golden dreams of his youth to become something meaningful in the present.