It is very easy to hype a new signing before he has stepped foot on the pitch.
In the case of Charly Alcaraz, the 22-year-old Argentinian has already reportedly had the seal of approval from Lionel Messi. With Juventus and Flamengo already proving he is highly regarded by scouts, he also has good Premier League performances under his belt and a winning goal in the Argentine Champions Trophy to his name.
He’s also got a feel of a cult hero about him. A technically gifted ball carrier, he also has a maverick side. His first game for Flamengo saw him sent off for punching an opponent as he was defending a teammate in a brawl. It seems like he’s perfectly lined up to become a fan favourite at Goodison Park.
There are some intriguing undercurrents to Alcaraz’s strangely last minute transfer to Everton. It is easy to dismiss the move as a simple squad depth move. A low risk signing who can play a few positions and who comes with an easy get-out for the club if they don’t think he is worth signing permanently. But it also asks questions about the structure of the club and the future of Kevin Thelwell.
The move does throw up a few questions. The first is whether his time at Southampton put him on the radar of David Moyes or if Kevin Thelwell has delivered a player his recruitment team has identified and tracked.
At the moment it feels a little bit like Schroedinger’s Thelwell. With each transfer move the discussion erupts again over whether the former Red Bull Group man is a genius Director of Football able to operate on the strictest of budgets and the most chaotic of backroom setups, or if he is a man who panic buys players and fails to get deals over the line.
Last year Thelwell hired two scouts to work from Argentina and Brazil; a region where Everton have traditionally had very little presence. A number of links have followed, from right back Wesley to attacking midfielder Kaua Elias.
Now we have the first signing but we do not know if this is the first one spotted by those two scouts or one Moyes and team were already tracking from his Premier League days.
In an ideal world this is a signing delivered by Thelwell and approved by David Moyes. The only way Thelwell, whose contract runs out in the summer, would stay at the club is if Moyes believes they can work together. After three excellent wins and a turnaround in the feel around the club you would have to believe Moyes holds the ear of the Friedkin Group and if he thinks Thelwell can deliver the sort of player he needs a new contract may be on the horizon – if Thelwell even wants that.
Alcaraz is an interesting one because he does bridge the gap between the Director of Football and Manager at Everton. Signed from an area Thelwell has invested resource, there is something distinctly Moyes about his arrival.
In his first interview Alcaraz spent much of it glancing down at the Everton shirt and in particular the badge. It was followed by talk of taking the club up the league, delivering for the fans and playing for the shirt. One answer stood out more than most: “I like the challenge. I know at Everton we have to fight for things. I am 22 years old. I like challenges.”
He accepted the offer, he says, to ‘keep fighting for my dreams’ and later on confirmed one of those dreams was a full international call up to the Argentina squad.
A few years ago Moyes was a pundit at Goodison Park. In a widely-shared clip he ripped into the Everton players and suggested they were not ‘Everton’ players, with the exception of Richarlison.
It is clear what Moyes wants at Everton; hungry players with something to prove. He did it with Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar and his original Everton sides were full of players who were desperate to be a success. Everton moved away from that strategy over the years as the likes of Fabian Delph, Neal Maupay and Solomon Rondon arrived with very little motivation to commit to the shirt and make the moves a success.
Tim Cahill was probably the poster boy for a David Moyes signing. There is an interesting conversation recorded in his excellent Coaches Voice article:
“Are you going to give me my opportunity?”
It was the only question I had for David Moyes. He looked at me.
“Well, we’re signing you, son.”
“But am I going to get the opportunity to play? To start? To be involved.”
“Yeah, you’ll get your opportunity.”
I looked at my agent: “That’s enough for me.”
I knew straight away. It suited me perfectly to go to Everton.
Moyes wants to bring that back and a 22-year-old with plenty of talent and ambition, but who has not found the right club or environment to settle, seems like a perfect fit.
Everton’s transfer business in the last few windows has been good under difficult circumstances. However it has not been cohesive. No Everton fan will blame Kevin Thelwell for going solo to land Illiman Ndiaye and Jake O’Brien despite Sean Dyche’s clear aversion to the signings. You could argue Jesper Lindstrom, Beto and Youssuf Chermiti were all Thelwell signings that Dyche tolerated instead of agreed with.
It may be that Carlos Alcaraz is the first signing in a long time where both Director of Football and Manager actually agree on the player. Moyes has spoken about not being able to get the targets he wants in January but this could be the first small hint that Everton have a cohesive transfer strategy across all football departments.
Everton fans will now hope the hype is well founded and Alcaraz can deliver on the pitch for the rest of the season.