No problem with this, pay the man the money. What a phenomenal player he's going to be, could be up there with Sanchez as one of the Pozzo's best ever finds.
Was listening to the From the Rookery End podcast on the way to work this morning and they gave an (imaginary) award to the best Watford player of the calendar year. Somehow they managed not to give it Doucouré as "he didn't play enough at the start of the year" and chose Gomes instead. Genuinely baffled.
Wasn't quite his debut but was his first league start, yes. Might be wrong but I think Brighton was the only league game he missed in the whole of 2017!
The best midfielder to ever play for us. He is the complete midfielder and is only going to get better. If Deschamps has eyes he would be on the verge of breaking into the French squad. Most footballers do not deserve any pay increase but this chap does. Enjoy him while you can. A pleasure to observe. His performances have eyes watching from all the 'big' clubs.
Everyone was talking about Richarlison attracting big offers, but it's probably AD getting more interest this Jan IMO. He does sometimes give the ball awwwway.
In this market he's already a £50m player. Come the summer he'll be proven and considered as the best midfielder playing outside of the big 6 and worth even more.
Gino won't be letting him go this transfer window. If Everton think they can sneak in an underhand bid they have another thing coming. They don't seem to realize that the Pozzo's play hardball and get the maximum for their prize assets. Doucoure has been a little under par in the last couple of matches notably in giving the ball away cheaply but it can happen to anyone. Other than he is a top top player. I'm sure some of the London teams given the failures they have in midfield, Bakayoko, Cissokho and Xhaka would be looking this way.
Googled him after after his performance last night, and found this from a Man Utd forum: http://www.redcafe.net/threads/abdoulaye-doucoure.436342/ The vultures are circling.
Anyone know where you can find distance covered stats? Would be interesting to see where Doucs ranks among the rest of our players.
He'll be gone at the end of the season, I'd imagine there will be a huge bidding war between all of the big sides for him.
https://en.onefootball.com/📊-the-201718-premier-league-distance-covered-rankings/ This only has the first 11 games but ranks Doucoure 2nd.
That is the reality of our club and whilst I would like to be in a position to keep the best players, I am happy with the system. The proceeds will be used to fund the next Doucoure or Richarlison. It is Watford's version of the "circle of life".
They can all **** off! We need to keep our best players and push for a European slot next season. However, if we fail to acheive that European slot then we could consider cashing in our some of our stars before the start of the 19/20 season, or in the January window if we are not looking like we might acheive Europe in that season.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ham-swoop-Watford-ace-Abdoulaye-Doucoure.html Well the fact that 'Poch' was watching us meant that he had to be watching/scouting one of our players - it's not as if he came to watch the sexy and exotic football that Watford provides (though ironically we performed amazingly on the night). Of all the players to scout, Doucoure is no doubt the most talented [currently] and he would definitely fit in the Spurs side. That said, if we can get him to sign a new contract, perhaps we can tell 'em to shove off for a couple of years; or if it comes to worst case scenario, we can demand big bucks - would benefit both Watford and Abdoulaye I would really like Doucoure to stay, not only because he is a magnificent player, but because he is genuinely a really nice fella, unlike some of the other obvious snakes in the team
I wonder if Gino will do something similar to what Ferguson did with Ronaldo - give us one more season, enhance your reputation even more, then take your pick of all the clubs fighting for you and leave with our blessing for insane money. And why would he choose Spurs? All the other top clubs pay higher wages, and despite their improvement over the last few years - still no league title since 1961. For one of the so called "big 6", that is an appalling statistic. No FA cup win in 27 years, no League cup win in 10 years; and no European trophy in 34 years. If you want to win things, Abdoulaye - steer well clear of the spuds. Whatever happens - he won't be sold for under £30m, of that I am sure. And I'm also certain he's not the kind of fella to sulk and go on strike like Mahrez if things don't go exactly as he wishes. Of course - he might want to stay and achieve something with us. He's the main man here now and first name on the team sheet. I'd offer him the captaincy should Troy leave in the summer.
If he won't sign a new contract then he'll be gone this summer. We won't get anywhere near the amount we'd get for him this summer with only a year left on his contract.
Hasn't he already made noises about being committed until the summer and then reviewing his options? I should imagine staying here isn't top of his list, particularly if Deschamps says he needs to step up even higher to have a chance of playing for France ahead of Euro 2020. In the current market he's got to be worth a solid £40m though. Maybe even more if we can negotiate a sell on too.
Levy v Gino will be an interesting one. Would like to be a fly on the wall for those negotiations, if they happen.
In terms of developing the player, Poch/Spurs would be great. And as Poch progresses to bigger clubs, Doucs could follow. He seems intelligent & grounded enough to keep working at his game. If I were his agent, I’d be looking at Man U. Pogba role but better all round potential without the Billy Smarts aura that Pogba exudes.
Yeah, Spurs would probably be a good option for Doucoure because they have a very young squad with potential future world class players, along with a decent manager. If Spurs play their cards right, they could establish themselves as a very successful club in the following years. That said, I hate the fact that we are slowly becoming a new Southampton. I really want us to establish ourselves as a top 10 side, of which can retain the talents that we find. Will be a shame to see Doucoure go, but it is inevitable that he will - along with Richy and possibly even Kiko
Actually, I’d like us to rapidly become the next Soton. Given that the tv money is remarkably evenly spread, the main way for clubs of our size to get a rung or two up the ladder is to make a series of big sales. The skill is judging how quickly to go down this path. Soton maybe sold too many over the last 3 years. Pozzo network is probably better placed than the Soton academy to keep replenishing the talent.
Why do most on here think it is inevitable that we will sell our better players? PL clubs are not so suseptable to losing players to the really big clubs anymore, because although the likes of us are maybe not as wealthy as the so called big clubs, we are wealthy enough to not really need the cash on offer for our star players. The biggest problem is whether or not the players have their heads turned by those "Bigger Clubs". However, more and more players are actually thinking about actually playing football, rather than going for the really big bucks, our own Chalobah is a prime example. If I was good enough to be a pro footballer, I'd like to think that I would rather actually play on a regular basis, and still earn a bloody good living, than basically sit on my arse most of the time gathering splinters and watch the mega bucks roll in. Lets hope the likes of Doucoure & Richarlison, opt for staying with WFC, as we could conceivably be going places if we retain our better players. We may not pay the really big bucks, but we still pay more than enough for our players to have a very good lifestyle and our better players actually get to play the game we all love in the best league in the world.
The thing is TVOR the whole (no so) unique selling point of this club is about saying to players and their agents, ‘we won’t hold on to you unreasonably if the right move comes along’. Yes, as a PL club we’re not susceptible to losing a player cheaply to bigger clubs any more but that’s about it. The fact is that Watford FC is near it’s peak right now. History and logic based on our size says that. Other than a complete blip of a year like Leicester the very very best we can probably hope to achieve is 6th/7th in the league and/or challenging for a cup. Players aren’t going to hang around hoping upon hope the blip year happens on their watch. And they all want to win things. The prospect of a Europa League qualifier away in Moldova or somewhere isn’t going to make quality players want to stay long term. I don’t think Chalobah is a great comparison either. He’s here to boost his career. He chose us and, assuming he recovers well from injury, we should get a decent 18 months out of him. But at the end of that time if he's doing well I expect him to looking to move on again. He hasn’t come here because we’re the peak of his ambition, he’s come here because we’re a solid stepping stone to get him to his ambition. There’s probably a good chance he could be picked for England while playing here but our profile isn’t likely to be big enough to help the foreign players get the attention of their national coaches. If Doucoure doesn’t sign a new deal in the summer I think it’s highly likely he’ll be going regardless. If he keeps his form up through until May there will be a good auction from him and I think the club will profit big time. I think we can get another season out of Richarlison, as he has a much longer contract and is much younger, but even then there’s a fine line between getting the best out of him on the pitch and annoying him so much it blows up in public. If that happens other young, talented players will be more likely to steer clear as they’ll think when push comes to shove Watford won’t let them move on.
The size of the club will always count against us. Look at Kante, he had Champions League football lined up with Leicester, and still opted out of it to go to Chelsea Doucoure will 100% go in the summer, doesn't matter how much we offer him
