Could it? This would depend on Villarreal making contact months ago and not mat a couple of weeks ago. It takes two to make a transfer happen. I'm sure Watford, like every other club in the world would like all their transfer business done by the first day of pre season training but clearly it will never happen. The club has made a lot of mistakes but slamming them for everything that doesn't fit in to exactly what you want just gets a little bit boring. Best HG options have now gone? A little bit over dramatic?
To be fair, I think Heidar has a point. I see it as bad planning to allow a key player like Kiko to go this late into the window. He's under contract until 2024 and you can't cave into every whim of a player when they say they want to go. What if Kamara, Louza, Pedro all say they want out.....as that is what will happen if they see we're selling everyone and replacing with inferior players. Who wants to play for a regressive club? As a club, you have to draw the line somewhere. We're not going to get much, if any money for Kiko and the quality we lose is really going to hurt the side. Had we done this earlier, or made provisions for him leaving earlier, then that's fine. But the free market is reduced now, and all we can get is someone like Christie who would be a poor signing as a right wingback. Kane Wilson without doubt would have been a much better option given the choice. The board are not investing in the playing staff....and we can't included Bayo, as that's some bizarre money situation they have with Bayat going on there. Our market is extremely narrow. They have to to free, out of contract, home-grown and able to contribute to a promotion chasing side. Good luck with finding that at this stage of the window.
It's been rumoured that he wanted to return to Spain. His family are back there as well. He's given a good 5 years service to the club. I'm sure discussions are had with every player about their future at the end of the season. Clearly if we had multiple first team players wanting to leave then it's an issue but then you deal with that if it happens. However it doesn't look as though these players have said they wanted to leave but Kiko has. We still have to get the right deal and wait for somebody to make an offer. As a replacement so many people bring up Kane Wilson. A player that's had one good season in League 2 and that nobody has seen play is the choice we should have made. If he hadn't played for Edwards last season he would never have been mentioned
Is it late in the window though? There’s over a month to go. I think it’s fairer to say it’s late before the start of the season. Not ideal to lose somebody in such a key position 10 days before the big kick-off. But I guess that depends on whether you want to see everything in place before we play Sheff U or if you accept that it’s a 46 game season and some flux over the first few weeks is acceptable or inevitable.
The issue isn’t about Kiko wanting to go, it’s about the timing of it. He’s been part of things right until now. Other players were weeded out early on. This tells me he wasn’t pushing for a move. We’re not going to get great money for him and we’re unlikely to replace him with someone better or even the same, so he should stay as he’s integral to how Edwards wants to play. So it’s bad planning and another indicator we are not serious about building a squad capable to challenge. All we’re doing is selling who we can and keeping the tat no one else wants. Of course there are still 3 or 4 decent players left, but the bulk are players who would not find a better club than Watford for their skill level. Many are actually punching above their weight by even being on our books.
Edwards wanted to see all potentially staying players train to judge their suitability and attitude. Been told by 1 or 2 people that it’s Edwards who is happy to let Kiko go, not the club. Think this is just a case of a player not wanting to play in the Championship at his age and wants to move back home, that’s shown in training, so Edwards happy to oblige and replace him before the end of the window.
It’s not about ‘saying you want to leave’ - it’s about the attitude and commitment a player shows. I’m sure all our best players would leave if presented with a better situation - but some will knuckle down and crack on. If Kiko won’t do that, and a bid comes in, best to let him leave.
I'd imagine the critical point in Kiko deciding he wants to leave is when Edwards said: 'and when the attack you've just overlapped in breaks down, I expect to see you busting a gut to sprint back into defence.'
The problem is, it is not an ideal world and these things happen. The rumour about Kiko wanting to return to Spain has been around for a while. Maybe he said he will stay but if a decent offer comes in he would like the chance of going home. If his wife and young family are already in Spain how would you feel if you were to stop him being with them. That part is the most important and I feel we should do what's right for the player (even if we don't always do that). I would love him to stay as he's an excellent player at this level but things are more important
At his age and with a fee in the picture, it seems a good time to go our separate ways given the squad really needs a rebuild. Best wishes to him if he moves on!
Except I don't. I've been critical of many things like Duxbury, some of the players we've signed and communication. What I don't do is slam them for every decision which is just as boring
Kiko was class in the Championship, but that's mainly because he had the freedom to just belt it up the wing knowing that the opposition were too afraid of Sarr to commit forward. I'd question how useful he'd be this season when we will find it far more challenging. He could barely hack a game every two weeks when we were getting pummelled in the Prem, How's he going to fare playing twice a week in December when we're lower mid table?
You throw a few soft critical comments but let’s face it you are a Pozzo footman who is always ready to defend the owner and has been doing so season in season out. Here you are the day of the Gosling interview having a pop at someone who has the temerity to be critical of lack of planning over Kiko. This ownership has resulted in an absolutely rancid culture which won’t change. It needs our fans to stop defending it. I’m not referring to you here but our fans on Twitter and those who clap those clowns off continually after every lame defeat make me ashamed to be a Watford fan.
Nothing will change until the owner is gone. He is poison to our club. So guess I’ll just sit back and have to watch the carnage until change happens - may not happen for years. As for Kiko. I’d have let him go with our blessing, but would have had the foresight to see this was likely to happen and recruited accordingly, even if a loan. Instead of sorting the Bayat’s out with a £5m double dip on a nomark striker.
I doubt Kiko would have been their first choice, and probably came somewhere further down the list for Villareal. Probably goes some way to explaining why it’s happening later in the window. Equally, I think Kiko would probably have been happy to stick with us, based on what happened last time we went down. I’m not sure he’d have kicked up a fuss about taking any offer that came his way, but the chance to go home and play for a big club at this stage in his career is never getting turned down. I’d imagine the club were happy for him to stay, but wouldn’t see it as the end of the world if a move materialized. Hopefully they’ve planned for this, and are ready to make a move on somebody pretty quickly so that we can begin integrating the replacement. (Said in hope, rather than expectation given SOP for Pozzbury)
Kiko has spent much time in Spain during pre season it was quoted as 'family business '. I'm pretty sure all parties knew that the best option was back to Spain and I wish him luck
What other clubs were interested in him? There were a few mentioned, albeit Villarreal is pretty close (if not right down the road!) from where Kiko is from
Less than a million quid for a guy with a couple of years left on his deal going to one of Spain's bigger clubs? Gino has become very good at spending money on utter todd incomings and settling for peanuts on outgoings.
We've needed to replace Kiko for 3 years. Now he's gone we can properly not replace him, just like We've not replaced Deeney, Cathcart, Foster and all the others who've left or past their sell by date. The degradation of our squad from window to window is as constant as the changing of the seasons. Sent from my SM-S908B using Tapatalk
Another great bit of business from Gino. To get less than a million for a player who... erm... I've got nothing.
TBF, as much as I'll moan about not getting peak value for younger players, I'm not overly concerned by less than a million for a player whose shelf life is pretty limited now. Besides, we have just received €5m of very real money for Masina
Not sure what else we could have done. We can’t plan when and if a club comes in for Kiko. We could have refused to let Kiko go, but it doesn’t sound like a good plan to keep a player against his will. Of course we could have brought in a player already, but no guarantee that anyone comes in at all. There is plenty of time to find a replacement and we have Kamara and Sema to start the season with
Tbh, I don't know if Ngakia is someone we want to be relying on too much this season if we have ambitions of getting promoted, we could have thought about getting in another RWB even before teams came in for Kiko, it wasn't a secret that he had an eye on going back to Spain. Yes, we don't have much money, but we have enough to have brought in Rej Manaj on a free (discounting Bayo as he's a favour to Mogi), could we not have made a serious effort for Kane Wilson? Udinese have a stack of RWBs, surely Gino could have told Papa that we could do with one of them?
He could still ask Udinese for one. We knew Kiko wanted to go but didn’t know an offer would come in. Had we bought another RWB and Kiko not left we’d then need to sell one. We can’t ask clubs to hold onto players for us as we just might want to buy later in the window.
Although he'll be playing second fiddle to Foyth for certain. But if we knew this was coming KGT surely we should have an experienced or moderately experienced player in the pipeline. Festy is very raw for instance. Kane Wilson would have been ideal but for whatever reason we passed on him. I have no doubt Gino is still making the same idiotic decisions and does not appear to have learnt a single thing from the last time we were in this position.
He'll be back up to Foyth. Who was one of their best players last season despite it being his first full season as a professional.