More Mirage than Goodison Maestro, James Lives on in Our Everton Imagination

I never really get why people like James but not Sigurdsson, who offered so much more on a consistent basis (even though regularly played out of position in an absolute mess of a line-up that still haunts us to this day).

I wish he, and Carlo, had stayed longer.

I haven't enjoyed watching a player in blue as much as him since and I think he was the best since Kanchelskis. We never got to see Rooney at that level.

I'm just happy we got to see him, even if it was in front of empty stands. And as for the money, he doesn't go close to the waste on others. For example, Holgate's continued salary.

It was beautiful while it lasted.

I wish we'd have got to witness him in the flesh.

I know it is gone, but give us him for half of the fixtures a season.

And I agree on the comment about Sigurdsson. We lost one of our most creative players.

James skill lit up an empty stadium and the hearts of many. Why? Because his likes had not been seen in our team for over 30 years. He may be a waning talent but, even at half pace, he was still so far ahead of what we have got or had.

I've forgotten what it was like when a midfield player could shoot from 25 yards with power instead of just passing sideways and breaking the play up.

As for James Rodriguez, a throwback to when you were used to just seeing sublimely talented players in Everton shirts.

We are unlikely to see that ever again unless a massive shift occurs.

As others have said, James playing for Everton was a bit of a dream; sadly, he joined us at the wrong time when few of us were able to see him play, and appreciate what a very fine player he was. He also seems to be well disposed towards the club and the fan base which is a classy touch.

I am not sure if anyone remembers the Simpsons episode at the time James signed, where there is a scene in Mo's Tavern where Homer holds up an Everton shirt with “James” on the back amidst a throng of celebrating Colombians in their national team shirts?

It popped up on my Facebook feed at the time, but it did strike me that the signing made big news in the US and parts of South America, so much so that people signed up to an Everton fan club in Bogotà!

Sorry I can't find the link to The Simpsons scene, but I do recall it was very funny.

There's a song about Everton playing "beautiful football"… Makes me cringe to hear those words now while watching the present-day garbage but, for many precious moments in that fleeting season when Everton sat proudly at times atop the Premier League, James Rodriguez made it oh so real.

The lad had more skill in his little finger than the rest of the squad put together. One of my biggest regrets of being an Evertonian was never getting to see this mercurial talent in the flesh.

Another who has said nothing but great things about his time here. I'd have him back tomorrow, imagine him and Ndiaye in tandem.

The goal against Leicester with the so-called weaker foot, genuine top class.

He opened up defences with passes other players could not see or complete. The Anfield pass comes to mind but early in his Everton career in London he played in Seamus with the most exquisite one touch pass. Seamus crossed to Calvert-Lewin (I think) to score an absolute beaut of a team goal.

Suddenly, I knew what the hype was about.

Problem was he had the same problem at every club he played for — he just didn't play enough.

While Sigurdsson was a decent player, even if he had spent 6 months in Specsavers, he still wouldn't have the vision of James. There is no comparison between the two.

Also, didn't James win the Ballon d'Or a few years back now? Even Sigurdsson at his very best was never near that level.

James knew because of his past run-in with Benitez that he would be first out the door. Yes, he had fitness issues but, when he played, he was influential — not something you can say about nearly all who have followed him.

I see Gylfi Sigurdsson mentioned. Another great player. As he seemingly was never charged by the law, what happened to him?

He certainly was influential when he played, because he completely undermined the side from a defensive point of view and we were targeted relentlessly in the space he vacated. Once he was rumbled, he was just a visually appealing weakness rather than a strength.

It's a shame. He allowed us to briefly feel like we were on the brink of something special when this was never actually the case. We were miles off.

And no, Rodriguez never won a Ballon d'Or.

You don't sign James to be defensive, and that's the problem, I for one am fed up of Jacks of all trades and masters of none.

James was class, I am glad he came, sorry he went, because he reminded me of the joy of football so long lost watching Everton.

Apart from freekicks and corners, Sigurdsson also offered nothing defensively — later in his career with Everton he was even taken off them.

He became almost as proficient as Schneiderlin at manouevering into positions where no team-mate could pass to him. When the pressure was on, Sigurdsson would go missing but I never saw James shirk the ball once.

I think the only people who regard Sigurdsson as a better option than James are those who are too young to see us win league titles. They have been brainwashed by the pragmatism and perspiration years of Moyes…. and of course by Sorcerer Bill making us all think being average was success. It certainly was with Bill and Moysie at the helm.

Calvert-Lewin enjoyed his best ever season, when supplied by the magical Colombian. DCL proved to me then, that in a quality team, he had the ability to be a top-class striker. Had he moved on from Everton at that point in his career, perhaps to a top Spanish club, DCL would be a recognised world class centre-forward by now. Injuries and running himself into the ground playing alongside journeymen players at best, has totally stunted his development.

I've watched Everton since the early '60s and would say without hesitation, that James Rodriguez was the epitome of the star quality player that our once great club would routinely sign. He was a throwback to an era when glorious football was on display at Goodison Park every other week.

Put simply, he was a joy to watch.

They would then truly realise, what a true footballer is and why so many of us. older grumpy so and so's are so grumpy at the lowering of standards under Kenwright and Moshiri.

He won the 2014 Fifa World Cup Golden Boot and was selected for the All-Star Team, La Liga Best Midfielder 2015, Uefa Champions League Squad of the Season, and Bundesliga Team of the Season 2018, Copa America Team of the Tournament 2019 and 2024.

Plus of course 3 x Portuguese Primera League titles, 2 x Spanish La Liga titles, 2 x Bundesliga titles, 2 x Champions Leagues titles.

Glyfi Sigurdsson's main highlight at Everton was avoiding a custodial sentence.

The fact he was only here 1 season and still speaks affectionally about his time here is nice to hear.

And neither were in any danger of adding to their trophy haul while at Everton.

Hopefully we can hunt out and develop players of this standard as teenagers who will stay long enough to deliver the goods.

Wouldn't we love to watch a front three of Richardson, Calvert-Lewin and Rodriguez now, instead of looking at Dom totally isolated under Dyche?

I also thought Sigurdsson's best days were behind him before his ban, he was only a passenger.

Yes, fantastic moments get the heart racing and dreaming but the absence with reversion to the James-less mode was more than some fans could digest. Having a singular incredible talent without a balanced squad, and perhaps veteran leadership, simply exposed us as a club. We were not structured to field James without risks and Carlo masterfully minimized those.

The problem of replacing a player like that is the reason you don't go in for them without the structure and resources to build from there. Saint Siggy was a more practical and durable piece of the puzzle. James was a very expensive and needy, shiny, somewhat distracted display piece.

James, on the other hand, was pure class, even in his decline period when we signed him. But we could never afford him and the reason why is exactly because we overpaid mediocre players like Sigurdsson, Schneiderlin, Walcott, Tosun, Bolasie, Klaassen, Gbamin...

So many of them... a bad habit we now pay for.

£45 million spent on Sigurdsson was the start of our financial issues.

What happened to him seemed grossly unfair: 637 days to investigate what exactly? Before it was dropped by CPS.

Gylfi Sigurdsson (now 35) decided not to sue for damages and returned to playing football after a break of 2 years, firstly with Lyngby in Denmark, then this year moving back to Iceland with Valur.

You have to go back nearly 40 years to find a better left-footed player in a blue shirt... or anywhere else really.

Koeman signing 3 Number 10s and selling Lukaku, the money he wasted and Moshiri bringing him in to replace Martinez — that's why we're where we are now.

Yet we champion players like Garner, McNeil who still cost a wedge and don't offer anything that say Scott Gemmil back in the day couldn't do.

I've never understoof a section of our fans, it's like it's all about stopping the opponent scoring instead of actually going for goals or entertainment.

I fully expect Ndiaye will have any positivity that his play brings trained out of him by the teachers at Everton.

It's okay though, let's just have midfield players that have defensive awareness, it doesn't matter if they don't score all season or create very little.

Sigurdsson cost us £45M in transfer fees and £22.9M in salary. Therefore, his 25 premier league goals came at a cost of £2.7N per goal.

His signing typifies the Moshiri era at it's very worst.

One of our latest recruits, Jake O'Brien, is already being written off by some, as an Everton player, due to his short appearance for the Republic of Ireland against England yesterday.

No wonder the media think we are such an easy target, we, the owner, the manager, the team and the supporters give them so much that is negative to write about, that even the dreamed of new ground is having about as much positive impact as a needle to the eye.

If we carry on with this seemingly unending negative vibe, we will — as somebody said on another thread — become very much another Leeds United.

Leeds have never been as big or as good as Everton for most of their history, so it's an almighty fall from grace for anyone connected to what I might call traditional Everton rather than the pale imitation we've had to endure for such a long time.

All miles worse signings than Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Benitez should be erased from the history of Everton FC.

James was a joy to watch.

James is without doubt the most world class player we've had in decades. That switch pass he could play with accuracy and precision without thinking about it. Instinctive. I wish I'd got to see him live.

James, Kanchelskis, and I could put my idol up there, maybe the big goalkeeper. I'm sure others from different generations will cite others.

Van Dijk committed three yellow card offences in the first ten minutes, don't think he received one yellow.

In the eleventh minute he got injured in an unfortunate collision with Pickford… Karma!!

I started watching Everton in 1968 (first game 7-1 v Leicester), a period when many older Evertonians say we played our best ever football. The whole point of watching football is to dream of seeing a player of the quality of Rodriguez.

The argument about his alleged wages is a total red herring, as mentioned by Christy, he helped make Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin better, more valuable players.

And in any case, it still would have been less than the combined wages of Tosun, Klaassen, and Schneiderlin, players who contributed next to nothing during their time at Goodison.

Rob, I'd love someone to put a tackle in on him, similar to what Peter Reid did to Marwood after he clattered Adrian Heath and took him out of the game for almost a year.

You know nothing of football then to say he was our worst ever footballer.

Considering he's still our most expensive signing and the sad way his career here ended, he may have a point. And judging by the abuse he took both at Goodison and on here, Lakavos would have plenty of support if he had said he was the worst footballer we've had!

Like numerous players, Sigurdsson was frequently whipping boy of the week.

"Be careful what you wish for" used to be a common phrase and this has lead Everton to end up sleeping with the fishes almost as long as Luca Brasi.

He was not our worst-ever signing.

I watched the interview with James last night on the club website. I would recommend it. He speaks in Spanish, but there are subtitles and some footage of his goals.

Oh to have had him for another couple of seasons, which he said he wanted. I guess finances dictated otherwise.

He was a decent player, had the odd blinding game once in a while, but overall he made our entire team incredibly slow.

Whatever it was, Koeman's 'producktivity' mantra or just the simple fact every other player was incapable, but everything it seemed had to come through this guy, at a snails pace.

It set the rot for everything we currently suffer under Dyche.

Rarely (in fact virtually never) did we buy a half-decent player in their prime. However, after four decades of sheer bilge served up as Windsor soup, we finally looked to have a manager who could take us places in Ancelotti. Of course it was prewritten in the stars that he would move as soon as we looked remotely successful.

James was a great player, pulling us up to levels many supporters had never seen. Sadly due to injury it was only in glimpses. That dream died, as did I, the day the dreadful fat waiter waddled in. Physically and emotionally sick, I can not and will not ever forgive Moshiri nor the dead one for that abomination.

Disgusted further at the way the smug twat discarded James from "his plans" from the off, underlined my fear that we were about to go fully backwards and totally inferior, akin to the bulbous balloons carer.

What could have been, never was and we have never looked likely since. Clueless attrition is our only way forward at the moment and will be for some years to come.

Oh those heady days of James. Yes, I remember them well.

But it doesn't matter, Benitez disposed of him. Since then, he has been spiraling downwards, until he decided he still wanted to play and the Copa America came along. Watching this, it was farcical to think of him as finished, he controlled games.

James was and still is someone who needs a desire to bring out the best of him… get him motivated and you still have a class, if not world class player.

For too brief a moment, we rode his and Ancelotti's coat tails. Remembering what football was about, laughing, crying, joy at watching Everton. Remember that?

Yes people point to his failings, multiple, people condemn him for his lack of effort (I assume this means not running constantly between boxes and tackling everything in between) without realizing that wasn't why he came.

It wasn't and still remains, not good enough for some, but for me it was a joy to watch, to see Everton on top of the pile where we belong… Then along came Benitez, along came Ukraine, and finally, along came Dyche.

How this club fucked up will be told for generations and students will analyze the two protagonists in debating the mismanagement of our club.

But right now, there is work to be done in rebuilding the dream. Finding James was a painful reminder of who we once were and why so many are angry.

Ray Roche 45 seems to understand. I won't try to persuade you that Sigurdsson was bad business. For the money we paid and what we got Lukaku, Richarlison, Barry, for example were good business and Baines, Lescott, Jagielka, Coleman, Distin and many others were brilliant business.

I don't say Sigurdsson was bad footballer, he was at the time a £20-25M player, we paid more than double for him and he offered what a £10-15M player would offer...

If he cost us £15M, I would say he was fine business but, for £55M, he was one of the worst signings we ever made. Anyway, I may know nothing of football but I know how to count...

Have a look at this analysis and perhaps more of us will understand that, to get the best out of James, you have to allow him to do what he does best and set up accordingly.

YouTube: The incredible return of James Rodríguez

Legs had gone and a total liability for 88 minutes of a game. He would never have got near a Top 6 club at that stage of his career and was not what we needed at the time.

If you took snippets on YouTube, he would look great but, in reality, we were playing with 10 men. A fit James would have been amazing.

You are correct in your summation that James has seen his better days. No one, including me, argues that. That he would not make a Top 6 team in the Premier League is probably correct too… but we are nowhere near a Top 6 side and haven't been for a long, long while.

Total liability? Did you watch Columbia in the Copa America or beating Argentina? Did you see what James was capable of – even now? The difference of course is that Columbia use its team to cover for his deficiencies and play to his strengths.

Alas with Everton (not just Everton), we are not in the business of covering individual talent, everyone has to be at peak fitness to run for 100 minutes up and down the pitch, no carrying or allowing for talent. Not what we needed (or need?) honestly you could not be more wrong.

Quality to open defences, create chances, score goals.. are you really saying he cannot do that at Premier League level? He does have a problem I would say with motivation or with coaches who just want workrate. It's like asking Picasso to paint your fence. What? He's a painter isn't he?

We deperately need quality in all departments, probably why the club are still hoping Dele can make it back. Anything resembling class has been sold. Workrate and hit and hope the mantra…

So, god forbid having 10 men who don't know what they are doing… I cry out for one man that does.