Is it our turn to go down?

Do you not think we should be asking the question why good players don’t want to come to us, rather than just accepting it as a given?

 

I don’t reject injuries as a problem, they held us back terribly last season. I just see little evidence that they are managed poorly. It’s just tough luck.

I didn’t envisage us signing no one in the last few days of the window, but I’m sure we tried. I don’t want us to dangerously overspend or overpay and sadly it seems we can make deals with clubs, but it’s still hard to get top players to come to Watford.

 

The problem is it seems Pozzo has a disconnect between his valuation or players and where the market is. There were good players available like Dawson, but we tried to lowball West Brom and got nowhere. Ditto Ward-Prowse. Maybe the market is absurd and sitting out is the best policy. But let's not pretend the likes of Dawson wouldn't join us or we couldn't pay his wages if we wanted to.

 

I agree. But to gently upgrade some of our squad garbage like Okaka, Britos, Marriapa, Holebas doesn't even need top players. Just run of the mill Premier League sentinels. One thing I suppose it turns out correct to renew Britos contract because Giraldi failed so miserably in identifying any suitable centre back targets.

 

Ok, so we'll just give up trying to sign any decent players shall we?

Why exactly was the possibility of signing good players excluded from the start of this window? It's an odd fallacy to pretend people were crying out for us to buy players who were 6th on our list of targets, although considering we couldn't even capture that when it came down to it and we, as a result, have no midfield cover at the very start of the season, I'm not sure that says great things anyway.

How about we just signed a player who improved our forward line, like everyone has been crying out for for a year and the club has had the same amount of time to identify and 2 months to execute?

Following on from that, who are these obviously brilliant players who definitely aren't anywhere near 6th choice who will be available and begging to come to us just because it's January?

 

Yes, Pozzos can’t compete with what other team are offering in wages and we end the interest in many because of this. Other teams seem to be taking the hit so if we go down then the Pozzos will have less of a wage bill to worry about. Shame really that they invested a lot to get us to the PL and now look as if they are going to shoot themselves in the foot. Financially this season we are out of our depth and can’t compete. Fraid its all over chaps.

 

Do we know what Burnley are offering in wages, and why we can’t compete with them?

Of course, they may go down - but I rather doubt it.

 

Which is fine. But thrown completely under the bus by the notion that they were about to sign Jack Rodwell to replace Doucoure if he didn't sign a new deal.

We seem to paint our owners as masters of the transfer market when the vast majority of the players we've bought since promotion have been utter ****.

 

Yeah, cos the spending table always directly tallies with the league table come May.

 

I wonder if this window was offsetting the spending in previous windows and the Richie money has helped balance the books. We’ve still addressed some key areas like the left back situation and invested in some young and promising talent.
The best signing of this window has been Doucs. A new 5 year contract that means his value remains high for the next 3-4 years as long as he keeps playing well.
I also wonder if we’ve already done the deal for Talisca and he will arrive in January - if so and it’s at the right price now, it prevents us overpaying in the Jan window when some teams will be panicking as normal - let’s face it, Man U and Spurs fans will be marching on parliament to demand they spend large amount of cash on any old Carlos.

COYH

 

I hope we go down because it would be unfair on another club, who've tried to stay up, to go down at our expense.

This summer's business is a disgrace and will live long in the memory.

 

That’s just not true is it? Rumours are we were after a defensive mid right up to the last minute hence the bids for players like Livermore and JWP. We gave Rodwell a trial but decided not to sign him because presumably he was ****. If we were still after a DM after Doucoure signed a new contract Rodwell was never going to be signed to replace Doucoure was he??

 

It doesn't. But the wage bill unfortunately has a strong correlation (not that I want us to put players on big contracts). The fact that FFP doesn't apply to Premier League scuppers us.

 

The Pozzo's are putting an awful lot of faith in Cucho Hernandez and Penaranda. You pay the big bucks for strikers and maybe they didn't want to chuck £100k and a 5-year deal at somebody like Alcacer, knowing that it could easily end up being another Borja Baston. There didn't even seem to be any interest in a striker, that's the key thing. "Not interested" was the message and I doubt a bid was ever made for one. Deeney and Gray know the league, both have managed 20+ goals in the Championship and they seem to get on like brothers off the field - who knows, it might click.

It's a massive gamble with our Premier League status, but if it pulls off, I think we'll find ourselves with a Colombian star who can achieve anything in 2019. Sadly...this season is going to be disgusting. Ben Foster will be the busiest keeper in the league and I expect more long balls from us than anyone (bar Burnley, obviously). It'll be tighter than a crabs arse.

 

Most media outlets have reported exactly that. Up to you if you want to believe it or not.

The fact that we've been made to look like idiots over the last few days with low ball offers and desperate loan attempts for players, I think it's fair to assume its not that far from the truth.

 

I never realised FFP didn’t apply to the PL but I suppose it makes sense. It’s the championship clubs who need protecting from themselves and will be most tempted to ‘cheat’ and gamble in reaching the promised land. Once you’re in the PL it doesn’t really matter how much you spend... until you get relegated.

I guess it’s why Wolves and Fulham have gone completely gung-ho and spent nearly £100m each, as spending it now and guaranteeing £100m plus TV revenue for the next few years is more than worthwhile.

They won’t be able to do it next year and the year after which is the problem we’ve found ourselves in this season with the money required to significantly upgrade our squad being too big a gap to bridge.

 

But it literally makes no sense. We decided not to sign him, gave Doucoure a new contract and then still pursued cover in midfield. Rodwell was a free hit for us regardless of wether we got Doucoure on a new deal or not. He would’ve cost nothing compared the midfielders we tried to sign after Doucoure signed his new deal. I think it was simply a case of us having a look at a player who might of been worth a punt regardless, but ultimately wasn’t. The club never had any intention of directly replacing Doucoure with Jack Rodwell, that’s just exaggerating a situation for dramatic effect.

 

Where has Rodwell ended up anyway?

 

That's Troy counted out then as he's incapable of playing in those formations as a lone striker

 

Nah, we'll stay up with ease, 12-13th I reckon.

 

Words we may well repeat next May

 

Fulham have spent an insane amount of money, ~100million, but they are probably still on par with us and don't have a great deal of depth. Their main striker is Mitrovic, and their CB pair is Mawson and Chambers.

I'm actually more frustrated about starting the season with a load of injuries than I am about the transfer window dealings. I hope the club learns from this and it doesn't cost us.

 

Cardiff
Huddersfield
Bournemouth
Newcastle
Palace
Us.
Going to be along season.

 

I hope we keep Success. He might actually do well under Gracia and it will be something to get excited about.

 

You honestly believe that we were looking at Rodwell as a direct replacement for Doucoure. Stick with the posting of incredibly unfunny posts because football maybe beyond you

 

The whole Rodwell scenario is baffling to me.

 

I don't think it's difficult.

Cleverley is out for some months, Rodwell was a free agent low cost option. The club looked at him but decided they didn't want him.

The club looked at other mids but maybe can't find the right player at the right cost.

 

I'm not sure it is the players that are refusing to come. There are a few more certain factors, Agents for one, Clubs another and both knowing we have the Richarlison money. It seems to me that we were unable to structure deals as we wanted them and wouldn't be held to blackmail. Those clubs that have paid out so much have risked their future if they fail whilst those clubs who have been sensible will hope to profit from it in the future.

 

It’s the wages that we are too cautious with and lose out.

 

No player specifically wants to come to Watford, but they don’t necessarily not want to come either. If we pay them what they want they’ll come. If another club offers them more wages (aka Gibbs) they’ll go there instead.

 

But we already pay an entire first team of players.

In addition we still have to pay the likes of Oulare, djedje and zeegelaar on their 4 year deals (who nobody will take from. Us) in addition to the perennially injured like cleverley, kaboul and chalobah. How much money is that on the wage bill? £150k/week? The club still need to pay these guys.

We are all guessing as to the financial state of the club, but my guess is we don't have much room to manoeuvre without player sales.

I think it is entirely plausible that we cannot afford another £10m + £60k/week (or whatever) for Dawson, at least if we want our accounts next year to be as stable as the most recent accounts were. Between the glut of injuries and existing deadweight players I doubt we had too much left over, especially considering we still signed 4 likely starters and 2 others. Everton might be paying us over 4 years, for example.

I don't think the owners are some omnipotent football gods. What I do think is they have learned their lesson from the last few seasons and haven't saddled themselves with expensive panic buys who the sit on the wage bill for 3 years and prevent other signing from being made.

 

Why not get rid of some of the deadweight then? It doesn’t strike me that much effort has been made to do that either.

Of course, there may be some moves before the European windows shut.