https://www.skysports.com/football/...arabia-deny-crown-princes-takeover-bid-report “Prince bin Salman is one of the richest and most powerful men in the world and is understood to be keen to invest in a top European football club. Saudi Arabia's neighbours are already heavily involved in football, with reigning Premier League champions Manchester City backed by Abu Dhabi-based Sheikh Mansour and Paris Saint-Germain owned by Qatar Sports Investments.” Top Eorupean Football Club, that matches us perfectly. Can someone have a word and let him know the Pozzo’s would be happy to sell to him? Thanks.
Pozzo's intelligence and Prince bin Salman's money would be pretty nice. However, I very much doubt a club like Watford would be anywhere near the type of club he would be looking at.
I’d be absolutely disgusted to have his money at our club. There are some things in the world more important than being a top European football club.
No thanks. Not against a bit of money coming into the club but not the type of money that changes the club beyond all recognition.
If he invested into the club and worked with the Pozzo's with things such as improving the quality of the squad i'm all for it. If he's to purchase the club and turn us into a soulless club like Man City and Arsenal by building a toilet bowl stadium 30 miles away from Watford in an industrial estate, i'd rather not. I support Watford, not because it's a local club i've grown up with, but because I love it's values and community spirit - something many other clubs don't have (especially near or in London). I'd be perfectly content with supporting the very Watford that continues to fight to stay up consecutively in the league whilst attempting to make pushes for Europa spots and cup finals. I'm proud to say i'm a Watford fan to outsiders because we are different. Our fanbase is small, but that's part of the package of our identity and why we are interesting... To me anyways.
Nice to see everybody who has posted so far is against this. I hate the Man City model of just spending money for the hell of it. Beginning of last season they spent something ridiculous like £150m on full backs! Chelsea were the same when Abramovic bought the club. Now he's trying to run it like a business it's not going so well. I love my club and the way we do most things. Despite what Dyche says we are still are a club at the heart of the community that cares what goes on around it. Some investment would be lovely to be able to compete in the top half on a regular basis but I would seriously hate to sign players like Ozil and pay him £350k a week to be utter toilet. Give me the like of Doucoure every day of the week until he leaves in the summer of course when he will be ****
I'm more than happy with the club right now. It's not just about winning everything by buying all the best players to me, it's about working your way to the top and feeling that everything we've achieved has been earnt on and off the pitch. I'm also happy that we don't have loads of glory supporting, plastic fans that have never stepped foot in Watford let alone been to a game.
Exactly. I don’t like Klopp. But he spoke once and his comment definitely resonated...he just said that only one team can win the league. And all the money around instantly means the other 5 teams will be judged to have failed. You only have to look at Arsenal and Chelsea to see that their fans have a far more miserable existence than ours on the whole because they expect success.
I've only just got over the pain of the Udinese owner ripping the soul out of the club; I wouldn't want to go through all that again.
I know what you mean, but thing is Everton spend lots of money , Man City spent LOTS of money. If money is no object and you buy the best coach and the best players some form of success has to follow - surely
Not when you spend a LOT of money on people who aren't anywhere near the best. Everton have spent hundreds of millions on players and managers that we can we get at a fraction of the price. We spend next to nothing compared to them, but we get the same quality on the pitch. That's bloody good business from the Pozzo's and I wouldn't exchange that for the model that Everton operates with. Fulham have tried the same and it has failed beyond anyone could have imagined. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if their owner tries to sell their club after such a disastrous financial season for them and in the long run, it could hit them pretty hard and i'm not sure if Fulham fans have realised that yet. 100 million spent for a relegation... Brilliant business that!
Yep. I was a big critic of Gracia last season but he’s quite old school and exactly what I have always wanted from a manager. He coaches the players. I have always thought a coach/manager should be given the players and it’s his job to make them better. Too many managers around these days (Silva/Mourinho) who just want the success and to get it without putting in the hard yards in training. It’s a hard balance. Sarri is finding that at Chelsea as I think he wants to coach them but he doesn’t have the players who want to buy into that. Or he does but he plays the wrong ones. We are one of the few clubs in the PL who have both the coach and the players with the mindset.
Not sure I would describe Everton as spending wisely though, £50m for Rich, I agree we have done well by spending little but with a good scouting network and like you wouldn’t want to change this. I think the thing is to guarantee winning the prem within say 2 years you could do it but would require spending well over £1bn , a few hundred million doesn’t cut it these days (and yes I know how insane that sounds).
it’s quite possible that some clubs will be right in the doo doo when the fun stops for their multi-billionaire owners.
Have to agree with all of this. A ringing endorsement of the job that Gracia has done, given as you mention, he’s changed the opinions of many, who like you were big critics of the guy. I was listening to a podcast on my way to work earlier, and they mentioned Watford, being very positive and calling us the best run club in the league (don’t let HB1 see us getting positive words!). They mentioned that it was evident the entire team had bought into what Gracia was selling to them. Also dropped a less than subtle hint that Gracia used the first international break to help Troy shed a few lbs! As mentioned on other threads, we don’t always win, but we’re almost always competitive. You only have to see the situation Sarri has at Chelsea, or how things went with Jose at United to see how important it is to get the entire squad focused on the same vision. Gone a bit off-topic. My bad. No to loads of foreign monies.
I’d take a rich owner and investment in the club but only on certain provisos. The pozzos would need to stay on and retain a stake in the club, they would need to be in charge of everything like they are now and in control of player purchases. The only difference being they’d get a reasonably big budget every season to play with, but by no means an unlimited one. Essentially a bit like how Abramovich runs the Chelsea at the moment. If it was just a case of a billionaire owner taking us over and haphazardly chucking money all over the place I’d take our current situation every time. That said one day the Pozzos will want to sell up, so we may need to prepare ourselves for a situation like this happening in the future.
