Javi Gracia

Thanks for that Clive

 

Bar a complete downtown & derailment, which is always possible, looks like JG is now set up to be here to stay for a couple of seasons. His family now moved over too.

The quintessential Pozzo yes man but who cares.

 

That must be right. Danny Dyer lives next door to us and Barbara Windsor is just down the road

 

It's a really good point he makes about the different styles. In Spain, even the teams at the bottom pass the ball well and you pretty much never see a last ten minutes "stick it in the mixer" game. Here, some teams play direct the whole game, others revert to it if they need a goal late on, and some teams continue to pass.

There isn't the variety in styles in Spain, so it's not surprising that is taken him a while to work out how to respond. Ironically, the two 1-0 wins against West Brom and Everton that pretty much kept us up were both achieved by staying in the game, sticking Okaka on and smashing it up to the big lads upfront. So he'd understood it as a useful offensive tactic last season, but this season seems to be working out how to counter it defensively too.

 

On the shortlist of 4 for MoTM.
After days of consideration, the PL looked at the league table and worked out who the managers of the top 4 with max points were.

 

It's a public vote i.e. a popularity contest so I doubt he'll win.

 

his contract only runs to the end of the season correct? at what point do the pozzos look at extending his deal?

 

Gino is watching.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...een-reward-boss-Javi-Gracia-new-contract.html

 

Don't extend it Gino until Champions League qualification is guaranteed, results will tail off otherwise.

 

Continuing the recent run of heaps of articles about Watford in the press - here's another good one in the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/sep/14/watford-javi-gracia-premier-league

 

I think I love him

 

That is a year he has been here now.
I know he has his detractors on this forum, but we are sitting seventh and that means we are the top team in England outside the so called "Big Six"
Congratulations Javi, on both counts.

 

As Javi has survived the year
I thought I'd better put this here:

(from Wikipedia)

Spanish Naming Customs

Foundlings

Anonymous foundlings were a naming problem for civil registrars, but such anonymous children were often named toponymically, after the town where they were found. Because most foundlings were reared in church orphanages, they were often given the surnames Iglesia or Iglesias (church[es]) and Cruz (cross). Blanco (connoting "blank" here, rather than the more usual "white") was another option. A toponymical first surname might be followed as second surname by Iglesia or Cruz.

Foundlings often were surnamed Expósito/Expósita (Lat. exposĭtus, "exposed", connoting "foundling"), which marked them, and their descendants,[22] as of low caste and social class, people without social pedigree.[citation needed] In the Catalan language the surname Deulofeu ("made by God") was often given to foundlings. In 1921 Spanish law allowed the surname Expósito to be changed without charge.[23]

In Aragón, anonymous children used to receive as well the family surname Gracia ("grace") or de Gracia, because they were thought to survive by the grace of God.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_naming_customs

 

Outside the 'big six'?

We're in the 'big seven'. https://www.thesportsman.com/articl...-the-premier-leagues-top-six-into-a-big-seven

 

Only if we beat Spuds tomorrow. Currently ninth...

 

I'm not against the idea of a 'big nine' (queue Deeney jokes)

 

Down to 9th. **** off gracia

 

That is still better than we have been doing under the previous managers. Do you not feel that you are being a little harsh.
There seems to be no pleasing some of our fans.