Diego Carlos will have better days at the office.
In fact, the Sevilla centre-back could have been forgiven for feeling relieved when he was shown a second yellow card with just 52 minutes on the clock at the Estadio de la Ceramica.
Carlos’s day started badly and got a whole lot worse. At least it ended early, right?
In April, La Razon reported Tottenham Hotspur had expressed a desire to sign Carlos in the summer transfer window. But on Sunday’s evidence it’s not easy to justify paying a club-record, £68 million fee for a defender who made 34-year-old Carlos Bacca look like a fresh-faced whippersnapper.
As Bacca ran riot against his former club, scoring a hat-trick in Villarreal’s 4-0 thumping of a Sevilla side supposed to be one of La Liga’s title dark horses, Carlos endured probably the worst day of his two-year spell at the Andalusian giants.
He was lucky not to be sent off early on, copping a yellow for a forearm smash into the face of Gerard Moreno.
Carlos then left Bacca free to head home his first of the night before dragging down the quicksilver Yeremi Pino on the edge of the box.
Carlos has always had a rash streak in his game – he gave away penalties in the last eight, last four and the final of the Europa League last season after all – but it’s a tendency to commit those same old errors that may have Spurs supporters fearing another underperforming, overpriced addition.
La Razon reported Jose Mourinho was the driving force behind Tottenham’s interest in Carlos, however.
Perhaps Spurs’ interest in a late-blooming Brazilian just followed Jose out the door?
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