Can't be true. We wouldn't replace him for 10m and he's a year or two away from potentially being worth 3 or 4 times that.
Heard from where? Why would Watford want to sell João Pedro at a loss? http://sportwitness.co.uk/watford-rearrange-deal-striker-set-pay-transfer-2023/
One of his most outstanding performances last season was as a central midfielder. Really doesn't suit chasing down long balls, and he spent much of last season frustrated that he couldn't get on the ball. Get him playing behind a decent striker and I think he'll be a real asset
According to the Brazilian media, he's signed a new deal until the summer of 2027 https://globoesporte.globo.com/goog...ford-ate-2027.ghtml?__twitter_impression=true
Excellent news. Protecting our asset. He'll only get better and any club who wants to sign him will have to pay a high price. A 6 year deal is substantial. I think only Dele-Bashiru has ever signed a deal of that length but it makes sense.
This great news and I think he will be happy to stay with us for most of that time as long as we stay in the PL.
Maximises re-sale value. Would expect to see another one of these in two years’ time with a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ agreed between player and club allowing him leave as and when an appropriate offer is made for him to take the next step in his career. Crazy to think that he’d only be 25 by the end of this contract...
I thought Dele-Bashiru was starting to look a right player before his injury. Not quite at early Chalobah levels but lets hope this season long injury doesn't put him back as much as it did to Nate.
excellent news this morning! a few more extensions to get signed and then we can start bringing players in. hughes and chalobah next please.
Wonderful news. A player who I believe will only continue to get better. I think he will have periods next season where he will take the league by storm. And naturally because of his age and whatever, he may also have quieter spells too. That’s to be expected. I think it’s so important we start next season with a fluid and interchangeable front line. The days of a big number 9 in the PL seem to be a thing of the past, and these days it’s all about forwards who can play anywhere across the three. I think with Pedro and Sarr, we are heading in that direction too.
I basically agree with you Malt, but I think there is still room in that front three for a good old fashioned CF to lead the line with the other two chriss crossing behind him.
Yes @The Voice of Reason I agree, as long as the number 9 is mobile and decent. Palace seem to have had some success recently with Benteke flanked by Zaha and Eze. I think my earlier post was too much of a generalisation, on reflection. Some PL teams do still play with a traditional target man, Palace, Everton, Villa, Spurs etc. One or two such as Southampton still play with an old fashioned two up top (when I get isn’t injured). But the growing trend seems to be away from that, and a more mobile interchangeable forward line, such as Liverpool have used for a few seasons. We've even seen teams not bother with a recognised forward, like Man City (successfully) and Arsenal (not so successfully).
I think the latter part of your post is key though, a player like De Bruyne is better in any position on the pitch than the vast majority of players in the PL, so City can do it because they’ve got players that can fulfil the role of putting the ball in the net as well as most forwards elsewhere. It doesn’t work at Arsenal because their players are all vastly inferior, it would be even less effective with us for the same reason. I think one way or the other you need a player who can sniff a goal out, get a few headers, a few tap ins, a player who has that killer instinct to be in and around the box and get goals by hook or by crook. Strangely one example that stood out for me in that regard was Gosling against Norwich. He repeatedly got into some fantastic positions, but he’s not a forward so just couldn’t finish them. Someone getting into those positions but with the ability to put the ball away a bit more often is what we need. There is also the added benefit of that type of player occupying defenders and giving them something else to think about. We currently don’t have that at all.
Arsenal have been so mismanaged since Wenger left. Every Arsenal fan wanted him out, and since he’s gone, they have become worse. Yes they had a little spike the season after, finishing 5th instead of 6th. Last season they were awful, this season even worse. The max points they can get this season is 61. Apart from last season when they got 56 points, the previous time they had anything lower than 61 points is back in the 94/95 season. Seems to be so much going on behind the scenes with board unrest, player unrest, fan unrest and so on. I seriously hope our first game of the season is Arsenal at home. Edit: apologies for taking it slightly off topic.
Covid not withstanding, they make enough revenue for their owner with their fans base and stadium doing what they do. Although there are of course financial rewards, it’s expensive to maintain a top four team. Kroenke is happy sitting where he is, much to the chagrin of Arsenal fans and the delight of the rest of us. Wenger had a fantastic philosophy, he has an eye for a player and played fantastic football. I also like the policy they had under him if never giving contracts to players over 30 and cashing in, then reinvesting again. look at them now desperately giving them out to players near the end of their careers. It was becoming more and more difficult for him to do what he did in the face of the money being spent by the other clubs though. If he was still here they wouldn’t be a top 4 team under the current ownership, but probably challenging for Europe easily enough.
I'm not slating him or even saying he's not a potentially good player, and his pedigree suggests to at least some degree that he might well be, but again the retrospective lionisation of Dele-Bashiru baffles me. He's been described as 'looking very decent' and 'starting to look a right player' for us in this thread - he played a total of 64 minutes for us in the league ever before being scythed down by his extremely unfortunately-timed injury! I don't think we can make anything other than the basest possible judgements on him from what we have seen so far; that being that he is a professional footballer who can indeed play football (so, in fairness, he has already leapt ahead of Gray). The fact that he came from Man City seems to be colouring opinion rather more than any actual Watford-based evidence; incredibly scant as it is.
Somewhat concerning to read on the club website that João Pedro "sustained a knee injury in a friendly with Millwall 10 days ago and will be sidelined for a few weeks." I hope that his knee injury is not too serious so that he will be missing for only a short period, but the club is not always very transparent about these kind of issues. https://www.watfordfc.com/news/pre-season-hornets-host-two-friendlies-on-saturday
Not ideal, you're right, and I do fear he'll be out for a good while now, although thankfully we have some better options now than last season
How well did he play against Millwall, anyone know? All our hopes and dreams are on his shoulders this season I reckon.
Pretty much 4 things happen to knees: 1) Sprains. These = 2-4 weeks 2) Bone Bruise 3-4 weeks 3) Cartilage/meniscus tears = 4-6 weeks 4) Ligament tears = ~ 1 year